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The fateful day

Posted on February 23, 2020 by

A few weeks ago when we said Wings was going to take a break for a bit, we also said “There may be posts now and then if something particularly significant happens”. Well, this week something particularly significant happened.

It was a development that we’d been predicting ever since Boris Johnson became UK Prime Minister, but it’s no less important for that. And it’s not an exaggeration to say that it could be the deciding factor in whether Scotland becomes independent.

Until now, advocates of “gender recognition reform” could dismiss it as an irrelevance in terms of the independence issue on the grounds that the Tories were planning to introduce it in the rest of the UK anyway. But that’s no longer the case.

Should there be an independence referendum any time soon – and we remain firmly of the belief that there’s no chance of that while Nicola Sturgeon leads the SNP, a belief she reaffirmed today on the Andrew Marr Show – there will now be a distinct choice facing all Scottish women: the choice between independence and protecting their sex-based rights to at least some degree by staying in the UK.

For many women (particularly after an abysmally glib, dishonest, condescending and evasive defence of the proposals by Shirley-Anne Somerville on Scotland Tonight on Thursday), that’s going to be no decision at all.

We could post another 100 examples. But to assess how significant the effect might potentially be, it’s worth restating just HOW unpopular gender reform is among women (and all other voters), even when the question is framed by those in favour of it.

(Interestingly, the Pink News story that Herald piece refers to has now been vanished from the Pink News website. The poll data can still be found on YouGov, showing that fewer than one in five women back letting people self-declare their legal sex.)

Poll after poll after poll, using every imaginable variant on the question, has found broadly identical results, with very little difference between demographics – male or female, Yes or No, SNP, Labour or Tory, wealthy or poor, Remain or Leave.

In October 2019, only 25% of Scots thought people should be able to change the sex on their birth certificate at all, never mind doing it purely on their own say-so without a medical diagnosis.

In March 2019, only 17% of Scottish voters supported self-declaration of sex.

In the same poll, only 14% thought transwomen should be allowed to compete in sport against biological women.

In October 2018, only 19% considered a person with male genitalia who identified as a woman to actually be one.

In the same poll, only 13% thought a biologically male person should be allowed to compete in women’s sport.

In the same poll, only 14% thought a person with male genitalia should be able to use women’s changing rooms.

In the same poll, only 12% thought a criminal with male genitalia should be able to serve their sentence in a women’s prison.

In the same poll, only 9% thought a genitally-male doctor/nurse identifying as a woman should be able to conduct gynaecological exams on a woman without her consent to that specific person carrying out the procedure.

In the same poll, only 13% of UK voters thought people should be allowed to legally redefine their gender without a supporting letter from a doctor.

In July 2018, as we’ve seen, only 18% agreed to that same proposition.

In May 2018, only 19% of English voters thought self-ID was a good idea.

In December 2017, only 18% of Scottish voters thought self-ID was a good idea.

Let’s put those numbers on a chart just to visualise it.

But what if we focus only on the sort of people likely to vote for independence in the first place? Late last year we polled SNP voters specifically on the subject, and the number who described themselves as “totally opposed” to the gender reforms – 0 on a scale of 0 to 10 – was 18%.

(Or 33% if you include anyone ranking their support between 0 and 3/10.)

If we use the 2019 UK general election as a basis for the number of SNP voters, 18% is 223,628 people. The number of switched votes required to reverse the result of the 2014 independence referendum would have been 191,969.

We saw earlier in this article that some people are indeed so opposed to self-ID that they would vote against independence to prevent it. If only those SNP voters who describe themselves as “totally opposed” to the reforms switched their votes, a Yes vote would be effectively impossible.

If you add in those from other parties who might otherwise be persuadable, and those SNP voters whose support for gender reform is rated only fractionally higher than total implacable opposition, the size of the task becomes insurmountable by any rational assessment – particularly given the toxic, abusive attitudes and methods adopted by trans advocates in the party.

(The same goes for those who oppose the reforms but tell women to hold their noses, vote SNP/Yes and wait to sort it all out after independence. We invite readers to share with us in the comments all their experiences of successfully telling women to shut up about things they care about and just do what they’re told by men.)

Until this week, it was still possible to cling to the hope, however optimistic, that there would be no clear dividing line between an independent Scotland and the Union over gender, and therefore the policy would do no harm in a referendum. That hope has now been shattered.

The SNP’s dogged determination to alienate the vast majority of the electorate for the benefit of a microscopic minority of loud, aggressive entryist extremists may have sounded the death knell for independence in our lifetimes.

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Pete

Effigy
Don’t understand what you’re on about.
The Rangers game was on live last night plus the goals were shown on BBC news.
Please get your facts correct.

Breeks

End the union! says:
27 February, 2020 at 7:14 am

….Challenge, don’t follow blindly!

P.S. I have no axe to grind either way in this debate, merely my annoyance results in having to come forwards to point out absurdities to people acting foolishly by endangering the very thing that brought them to aWings in the first place!

This blog should be discussing immigration policy of uk government and the drugs summit, etc, not this nonsensical distraction!

You seem to have a blind spot if the “challenge, don’t follow blindly”, philosophy if it is applied to the SNP.

Rev Stu got pelters of abuse and condemnation for floating the idea of a Wings List Party to wrestle list seats from Unionists without injuring the SNP. He was vilified as a tractor-d to the cause risking that the SNP vote would be split. Fast forward a few months and we have two of the SNP’s biggest hitters battling for the same seat in Edinburgh.

We have a Scottish Government in denial about Scotland’s National Constitution and Sovereignty of the people, who defer instead to the colonial legislation of the Scotland Act, the constitution of a devolved assembly not a Nation, in order to keep Scotland in a Section 30 straight-jacket and squander mandate after mandate from the Scottish electorate.

The same abandonment of Scottish Sovereignty saw NO action being taken to defend Scotland from colonial subjugation of Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty and suffering the embarrassing capitulation of the Scottish Government to acquiesce to Scotland’s Brexit, when a more competent government would have secured anything from a Scottish Constitutional Backstop right across the spectrum to the actual demise of the Act of Union through unconstitutional breach of the Treaty through Brexit.

Considering where Scotland stood poised in 2014 before Sturgeon came to power, and where we stand poised now, it seems entirely appropriate and fitting that the SNP should be challenged, and challenged vociferously for abandoning Scotland’s Constitutional interests over Brexit, while pursuing a bizarre and unnecessary abandonment of science to pacify a bizarre minority of Trans-Rights activists who seem to exercise a bizarre and unwelcome influence over SNP strategy.

Nicola Sturgeon has for years benefitted from loyal supporters of Independence who quite naturally see an attack on Sturgeon as an an attack on Scottish Independence and the SNP, but it is arguable that insulating Sturgeon from criticism has also spared the SNP’s strategy for Independence from rigorous scrutiny. Sadly for us all, Brexit has cruelly exposed beyond doubt an undeniable naivety and impotence in the SNP ideas department, married to a disgraceful Constitutional illiteracy and an impeachable abandonment of Scottish Constitution principle.

It is inevitable that squandering so many open goals, an apparent stubbornness to invariably do things the hard way, and stoically ignore one material injustice and subversion of Scotland’s rights and entitlements after another, and all the time sitting on enough mandates to fill to a scrap book, that ad you say End the Union, this MUST BE CHALLENGED, and we must not follow blindly, because Brexit is living proof that the SNP’s aura of being in total control is nothing but a cynical con being played upon us all.

Unlike some, it is not Sturgeon’s desire for Independence I doubt, but her capacity to deliver it. I fear she doesn’t know how to deliver Independence any more that she can extricate herself to make way for someone else without plunging the SNP into turmoil. That is understandable given the political lightweights and these utterly bizarre “wokists” she has around her, and an extended failure to develop SNP strength in depth that is properly focused on Independence.

Since taking over from Salmond, Nicola Sturgeon has done nothing to alleviate disquiet or concern amongst the YES movement. The entire YES family has been left to fend for itself on pretty meagre rations from the SNP’s command bunker. As time progresses, those most peripheral to the SNP have felt best able to criticise and raise genuine concern, only to be slated and silenced by SNP party faithful as trolls, Brigade 77 subversives and self interested egotists, and this has bred mistrust and acrimony because more often than not, nothing could be further from the truth.

I lay this too at the foot of Nicola Sturgeon, because a degree of leadership was required to see these concerns addressed and wildcard frustrations allayed and nipped in the bud. But no, if you criticise the Royal House of Queen Sturgeon, you are unworthy, a heretic, and don’t deserve an answer to your question.

When Sturgeon volunteered to compromise over Brexit in 2016, and arbitrarily declared she would accept Brexit on condition Scotland secured access to the Single Market, I asked what Constitutional authority she had to overrule the sovereign mandate of the Scottish electorate. If I’d been given an answer, back then, Scotland’s Constitutional Sovereignty could have been adhered to, and perhaps Scotland would never have been Brexited, nor would Scotland have been subjugated, and it is all but certain the Treaty of Union would no longer exist.

You’re damned right I feel like challenging the SNP, and not following on blindly. Right now, I’m trying to find out whether I can actually impeach them.

The bottom line for me is that I don’t want the naive and amateurish SNP fucking up Scotland’s Independence they way they totally fucked up Scotland’s Brexit. I demand nothing less than Scotland’s devolved Government being shackled in irons and forced to abide by the inviolable principles of Scotland’s Constitution and the Popular Sovereignty of the people.


“Yet if he they should give up what he has they have begun, and agree to make us or our kingdom subject to the King of England or the English, we should exert ourselves at once to drive him them out as our enemy and a subverter of his their own rights and ours, and make some other man Parliament who was well able to defend us our King Government”.

Fuck the Scotland Act, Sewel Convention, and shady “Parliamentary Sovereignty by Convention” boasted by Westminster, and every other tawdry colonial encroachment upon Scotland’s Popular Sovereignty and National Constitution. Scotland is sovereign and governed by none of them.

Joe

@ EndtheUnion

Firstly im probably without a doubt one of the most unpopular entities to post on this site.

Second WOS probably only tolerates me due to a commitment to free speech. We are probably at opposite poles in the political spectrum in real terms.

As for women? The reason I have nothing to do with the left, and actually utterly hate the modern incarnation of leftist politics, is because I am actually for minority rights. The ultimate minority is the individual. What is happening, thanks to identity politics and the underlying intersectional philosphy is that group rights are being placed before individual rights at an international and national level.

Further – the most aggressive, threatening and hostile behaviour in the last decade or so has continually been from certain groups attacking anyone who steps out of line with what they believe to be moral and just. Antifa, giving out personal details of people they disagree with, getting people fired from work, censorship etc.

This trans rights issue isnt just Nicola Sturgeon making an arse of herself. Its an international agenda. The kind i have been talking about and its an example of how the rights of the individual are being disregarded.

People are being coerced at work, we are being threatened with hate speech laws, we are being named as filth…all because we want to call a carrot a carrot and a turnip a turnip, so to speak.

Im used to it. Ive been in this basic debate for more than 13 years now. I saw this coming to Scotland and I mentioned it on this site. I also warned that once identity politics gets into an organisation, at any level, it will utterly destroy it. Im being proven correct.

I dont want my country being turned into an anti democratic neo marxist, post modern shithole basically ruled from above by unaccountable international organisations. It seems that the women/trans rights issue is where we dig the trenches and start the real fight. Im happy with that. I thought it would be at the point when paedophilia acceptance gets pushed but im pleasantly surprised.

Historically the harm caused by merely selfish or insular people is nothing compared to the absolute apocalyptic destruction caused by those morally superior ideologues who have big plans for everyone else.

Republicofscotland

So Willie (Never to independence) Rennie and his band of naunce protectors are keeping a low profile, after it was revealed the extent the Lib/Dems went to, to put party interests before child safety.

Rennie and Co really are vile creatures, never to be voted for.

link to thenational.scot

link to thenational.scot

shug

This is an interestingly quiet time. Will there be a referendum this year or not?? Can Nicola survive if not?

If Boris decides to change and supports section 30 he loses face, but if he allows one, the tide could be with him, given the yes vote is still only around 50%

The depressing thing is Solidarity set up a list only party. Fortunately, they are not the brightest still thinking people in Scotland was a socialist republic and the usual range of 1930’s trade unionist sound bites.

I am fed up with the SNP whining in the background, they are as repetitive in their grievance as the Tories are in their arrogance. They are developing into a small issue party, gender rights, appointed persons are good examples.

I want to hear that Boris crashed the union when he put the border up the Irish sea.

I want to hear independent reports about the impending disaster for fishermen and farmers.

I want the Scottish Government to be writing to the fishermen and farmers outlining what’s ahead to prepare them – call is disaster management

I want to her if Westminster got the EUs permission to have a referendum.

I want the SNP to fore a referendum or crash the Scottish government and call an election

Listening the SNP is starting to sound like a call Kaye show

robertknight

Well said, yet again, Breeks @10:13.

I fear that the Yoons will get their wish of “once in a generation” as far as IndyRef2 is concerned, but it will not be as a result of any action on their part, rather it’ll be the result of persistent inaction on the part of the SNP.

I’m coming to the conclusion that if Scotland is either unable or unwilling to leave the UK then, as multitudes have done throughout history, this particular Scot will be leaving Scotland.

Dorothy Devine

Sitting on the bus this morning in close proximity to a conversation by ladies that I thought were uni ancillary staff , I overheard that wee Nicky should be shot – it was her fault that the rates / rents were going up , no-one had done anything about the ice on her street ,the roads were in terrible condition – this without noticing that the trip into town was peppered with stops for roadworks.

Her daughter was trying to decide which uni she was going to – obviously it went unnoticed that her daughter would be in the happy position of NOT paying fees- but that wee Nicky in it for herself.

There must be thousands of folk who don’t know the good being done by the SNP on their behalf and read only the terrible press and listen to only the terrible broadcasters , because the other thing mentioned was Derek Mackay and Alex Salmond – well done Scottish media you are the great slurry spreaders.

Dr Jim

Scotland and Wales are territories of the United Kingdom Michael Gove said this morning when talking of the overwhelming vote for Brexit, and how the UK which has been instructed by the sovereign people in the huge victory at the general election to negotiate with the EU on the *Fffk you* basis of an Australian style deal (double speak for no deal because Australia has no deal with the UK) and if that’s not acceptable then it’ll be all over by June

If you read that in a newspaper you’d laugh, but excepting the *Fffk you* part that’s what he said in words from his mouth

With every spittle flecked word that Michael Gove splatters over the despatch box you can see that man’s only desire is when does he become the next Prime Minister

It’s a game to them because they’re so rich nothing matters

manandboy

UK says it will consider walking away from Brexit talks in June
Negotiating mandate reveals Johnson seeks Canada-style deal and ‘regulatory freedom’ (Guardian online)

From now until Independence, there will be no good news for Scotland. None.

Scottish Independence. If ‘Brexit Boris’ doesn’t get you, then Trans-gender will.

Dr Jim

SKY news Adam Boulton chided reporter Beth Rigby for not repeating the words *Australia style deal* which he told her they were instructed to call it

Beth Rigby said “It’s a no deal and that’s what I’m calling it”

Who is it says the media are free and fair *instructed*???

dakk

‘If ‘Brexit Boris’ doesn’t get you, then Trans-gender will.’

Or Covid19.

Maybe that will be a blessing.

At least we’ll take a few Yoons with us.

Ottomanboi

@DrJim
Gove is the political personification of that organic matter that floats in the open sewer styled the British state. His anglophiliac worldview is stereotypical of the ‘Scotch unionist catamite’ coterie.
No holes barred to the colonial boss.

mr thms

Pete at 9:59 am.

The facts are correct.

A lot of people do not watch the BBC. On ITV’s News at Ten last night they had a report on the result of the Manchester City match, but ignored the result of the match involving the other ‘British’ team that had been played.

liz

well said, Breeks.
I believe NS has neither the confidence nor the expertise to deliver indy.
It’s why she relies so much on all those SPADS.

manandboy

“Xi Jinping has buried the truth about coronavirus | Ma Jian” link to theguardian.com

Johnson & Jinping – both corrupt, both intoxicated with power, both deluded, and both quite capable of ruthless brutality.

Unionist Scotland remains asleep.

cirsium

@Breeks, 10.13

What a post. Bravo, sir. I am planning to go to the Arbroath march on 4 April and was reading the Declaration again. Your amended section sums up my thoughts exactly.

Dr Jim

FMQs was the usual it always is with Tory leader Jimson Complan telling lies filled with furious faux outrage
Labour leader Robin Leopold totally unable to lie without his coupon becoming beetroot coloured with embarrassment at being just rubbish

BBC crapispondant Bryan Taylor summed up by asking and then answering his own questions with his “journalistic chums” one of which the Daily Express guy was allowed to answer all of Bryan Taylors questions without interuption but the National’s representative Kathleen Nutt wasn’t afforded that luxury of answering any questions as she was constantly spoken over by Mr Taylor just in case the National woman said anything controversial like the FM won the arguments, or something equally unacceptable for the viewing audience to hear

Although Tory bag packer Annie Wells did get her just deserts over her comments about her *letter to the people* telling us how fed up and disappointed we all are that the SNP still have us voting for them

Bill Hume.

Joe @ 10:15 am

“Firstly im probably without a doubt one of the most unpopular entities to post on this site.”

Well, you at least got that much right.

Republicofscotland

As the English government tells Scotland, no you can’t have a drugs consumption room, we have the power and we say no. We can’t have you Jocks attempting to do somethimg really positive about saving lives in Scotland.

Already the English government is making noises about going for a no deal Brexit putting out that if by June they haven’t gotten their way no deal will be the answer. Tactics? Or more like no deal was always the plan, the latter sounds familiar.

cirsium

@manandboy, 12.37

In view of The Guardian’s role in setting up Julian Assange (link to medium.com ) , in defaming Julian Assange (link to craigmurray.org.uk )and The Guardian’s links to the UK security services ( link to dailymaverick.co.za), how much weight does this article have?

North chiel

“ Liz says@ 1158a.m.” I believe that NS has neither the confidence or expertise to deliver Independence” . Mmm .. our FM it seems to me ( by nature) is a “ compromise” individual. A good personality trait where “ negotiations “ are necessary . A possible example ( today) would be the deal” with the Greens over the budget ( Aka Kate Forbes) . However for compromise you require “ reasonable” parties on both sides . However, with the delay on the devolution of Social security , is possibly “ the expertise” the issue here? Looking forward , if we enter negotiations with Westminster on Independence, it would appear to me that our representatives would have to deal with possibly “ unreasonable negotiators” on the other side ( let’s see how the negotiations pan out between Westminster and the EU over the forthcoming months). Perhaps , a different style of leadership would be required if a “ reasonable” Independence negotiation/ timetable was “ off the table” . Consequently, obviously dependent on what transpires over the forthcoming months , could point the way to whether the current SNP leadership ( both at Holyrood & Westminster) , have the “ confidence & expertise” to prosecute the case & steps towards independence against what would appear to me to be an “ uncompromising Britnat extreme right wing Tory Junta” . ? Perhaps the time for “ reasonableness & compromise “ is drawing to a close , if Scotland , our economy & people are to be “ threatened” by a “ belligerent & hostile neighbour”. If so , then perhaps our FM’s increasingly frequent trips to “ friendly” EU states , makes sense?
Further, perhaps our leadership should study more closely how the “ so-called velvet Czechoslovakian divorce “ was achieved so speedily , from the point of view of the Slovakian new Sovereign state being fully accomplished . ( including presumably Social security and all other previously “ reserved” departments of state).

Republicofscotland

In the National newspaper today the McCrone Report in full.

For those lurkers who haven’t yet read it.

How England, hid then stole Scotland’s massive wealth, as it has done so for centuries.

link to thenational.scot

Sensibledave

@ Joe 10.15

I used to be a regular contributor here. I had declared my general political position (a middle aged Englishman, living in a tory “shire” in the SE of England and someone who, more often than not, voted tory) and, it is fair to say, that I held a different views to most other Wingers.

My observation of the current situation is that what we are seeing is the natural result of time passed. The SNP is now part of the established establishment in both Holyrood and Westminster, they have a history, they have “form”, they have been tested, they have their crooks and flawed characters ike other parties and, inevitably, in my view, there is also an innate desire to continue to exist and carry on – simply in order for MSPs, MPs, party members and activists to keep doing what they do.

As a more mature party, that has been in government in Scotland for some time, they have a record – and people can judge them on their ability to govern and their policies. They can also be judged on their ability to deliver the main aim of the party, i.e. Scottish Independence. Clearly, as shown above and in recent threads, there are increasing numbers of Independence supporters that now have serious concerns about the current strategy and the leadership’s ability to deliver that aim.

By accident or design (or a bit of both), I believe Ms Sturgeon knows she is in an almost impossible situation. It is my view that she does not believe that an Independence referendum can be won this year. She knows that the UK’s exit from the EU has queered her pitch by introducing enormous uncertainty and that the 10% of voters that are probably “floaters” on the issue will be targeted mercilessly with a Project Fear campaign that would make the previous referendum look like a picnic. Importantly, she can’t actually counter or argue against many of the potential Project Fear points because no one knows how the UK is going to fair post Brexit.

The “floaters” will be hammered with a “not now” message based upon their potential fears of being out of the EU and the UK. Currency, Debt, fishing, handing back control to EU, immigration, tax levels, etc, etc. I make no comment with respect to those issues – just that it will be relentless. Ms Sturgeon knows this – which, in my view, is why a 2nd referendum is not being pursued with any vigour at this time.

I believe Ms Sturgeon is nothing if not intelligent, shrewd and absolutely committed to the cause of Independence for Scotland. I think she also knows she cant win a referendum until 2022 at the earliest (assuming Brexit is perceived as failing by then) or further away if the UK is doing well.

Another regular “trope” here on Wings that I have seen over the years is the notion that as the “Old Yoons” die from old age, they will automatically be replaced by “Young Indy” voters resulting in automatic growth in the popularity of the SNP and the Indy cause. What we see now though, is the “Young Indy” voter also has different views to middle aged Indy supporters – on many other issues, including “wokeness”!

So, like the Labour party trying to accommodate the views of Corbynites and Blairism; like the Tory party try to accommodate the views of the Hezeline/Clarkes and the Cash/Rees Moggs, … the SNP now have to try and accommodate a “broad church” and life becomes more and more difficult as the “single issue” is diluted in its importance because other issues also have prominence.

Republicofscotland

English news channel reporting that someone in China who had the Coronavirus and survived, has contracted it again.

Pete

Joe and Sensible Dave
I congratulate the two of you on your interesting, revealing and absolutely spot-on points.
Joes point about the ‘ultimate minority is the individual’ is so, so right.
I am someone who dislikes abortion on demand, dislikes gay marriage, dislikes transgenderism and basically has an ultra conservative view of life. I am not religious but I cannot see why I cannot hold these views and express them without receiving a ‘bucket load of shit’. As Joe says, the ultimate minority is the individual and, as such, I am entitled to my viewpoint however far off the current norm it appears to be.
Encouragingly, I am noticing that a lot of SNP supporters are now starting to think beyond the ‘party line’ and express views which would, hitherto, have been considered to be blasphemous and ("Tractor" - Ed)ous to the cause.
Really great to observe.
If only you could encourage your MP’s and MSP’s to do the same and start thinking for themselves rather than just, boringly, spout the party line.
My respect for the Conservatives went away up when individuals started deviating away from party policy.

Republicofscotland

You just have to loo, at the SNP’s donations in the last quarter of 2019, to know that there was never going to be a indyref this year.

link to electoralcommission.org.uk

One wonders have donations especially on the business front dried up for the SNP, and if so did that happen when Sturgeon succeeded Salmond, and did the fact that Sturgeon put Brexit before independence have a knock on effect on SNP donations. Thus damaging the chance of a indyref any time soon.

Republicofscotland

Even the Scottish Greens received more in donations than the SNP in the last quarter.

As did Plaid Cymru, who in my opinion on independence were more honest with the public than Sturgeon.

The Offical Monster Raving Looney party, recieved roughly the same donations in the last quarter as Willie (Never ever to independence ) Rennies Lib/Dem branch office in Scotland, the former of the two parties being the more sensible and pragmatic in my opinion.

link to electoralcommission.org.uk

Blair Paterson

After the treaty of union was forced on the Scotand Lord Belhaven said I am going to live abroad for Scotland is now only fit for the cowards who live here it is said he died of a broken heart aye when will we see your like again maybe never ???

Republicofscotland

For those of you wondering what the Renew party is all about

link to en.m.wikipedia.org

link to electoralcommission.org.uk

Ottomanboi

@Sensibledave 13:43
The SNP leadership squandered the three years of the Brexit process as well as the 56 seats secured at the Westminster GE.
It may have become a ‘mature’ political party, a mature British political party that is, but it has also become smug and complacent and rather too comfortable with the status quo. The growing factionalism and the flirtation with mawkish wokery is a result of a loss of focus, purpose and dynamic.
The irony is that the wokery, which is believed to be a vote winner among ‘the young’, is being peddled by middle aged men and women whom we might expect ‘to know better’, but in a society that considers a teen from Sweden with ‘issues’ to be an oracle/prophetess on matters meteorological it should come as no surprise.
The National party requires a refresh, neither Sturgeon nor her allies ought to be part of that. Independence is a serious business, we need leadership that accords with the bullish, altered political state.

Sandy

Pete @ 2.08pm.
When individual Tory MPs deviated from the party line, your beloved Boris sacked them, Hitler style.

Dan

@Republicofscotland at 2.18pm

Businesses may well have been preoccupied and using any “spare” monies they had to look into and assess what they might need to do so their business remained viable once out the EU in whatever form “leaving” might take.
Other businesses might just have spent any surplus cash on the staff crimbo party as they were told Scotland wouldn’t be taken out of the EU so wouldn’t have to worry…

Either of the above circumstances would explain a lack of donations from frustrated businesses.
Some businesses are of such a size that they are effectively sustaining the viability of small towns or communities.

mike cassidy

Joe and Pete joined by Sensible Dave.

The Holy Trinity.

Three in one?

Or one in three?

Nah!

Just the Three Feckiteers.

boris

Business leaders are ready to donate more money to fight Scottish independence in a second referendum than they did in 2014 and several have already promised six-figure sums, a controversial campaign group has said.

Richard Cook, who chairs the pro-Union Constitutional Research Council (CRC), said “several” wealthy backers are prepared to hand over major sums to “a new and positive campaign” to keep the UK together.

Cook broke his silence following claims CRC funnelled money from unknown sources to the Democratic Unionist Party to fund its Brexit campaign.

link to caltonjock.com

mike cassidy

It must be immediate custody because I see nothing in the offence itself or indeed in you that would render it unjust for me not to implement it,” the judge said.

To a man

Until his lawyer pointed out he identifies as a woman.

link to archive.is

link to archive.is

Republicofscotland

“Cook broke his silence following claims CRC funnelled money from unknown sources to the Democratic Unionist Party to fund its Brexit campaign.”

We can’t rely on a captured English body, the Electoral commission to properly investigate Tory dark money, it just won’t happen.

The games rigged, the decks are stacked, only independence can save us.

J Galt

Willie

Hi Willie, Moron here!

Free travel for over 60s etc has not served to increase bus usage overall – indeed the way it is administered it serves to decrease usage.

When it started the proportion of the fare paid to the operator was a lot more than 50%, over time the SG has reduced the percentage paid to the operator because said SG can’t really afford it. Do the operators take this on the chin? No of course they don’t, they raise the adult single fare in order that their take from the SG stays the same – result a decrease in full fare paying punters, a spiral of decline if you will.

In Kilmarnock the single fare from where I stay to the town centre – a journey of barely 5 minutes costs £2.30. For two persons a taxi is cheaper, as is taking the car.

People tend to abuse things they get for nothing, an unfortunate human trait but true nevertheless.

Sensibledave

sandy

… on the generality, Boris is not my “my beloved Boris”. Darn Sarf, there is a more general distrust and a healthy lack of respect for political leaders. We tend not to worship them in the way Ms Sturgeon … errr… was. We know, in the end, they will probably let us down. The winner of an election is one that is perceived as being the least worst.

In the last election, my choice was Corbyn or Johnson. So unless, despite every scrap of evidence ever produced, I still believed that socialism made populations healthier and wealthier, the was only one real choice.

Pete

J Galt
Your conclusion is absolutely correct.
Anything free is abused.
Prescriptions
Rail fares
bus fares
Free sanitary products
GP visits (even the Irish pay)
At the end of the day, all those services need to be paid for,
The only question is ‘By whom’
I suppose, if you are a socialist bent, then the answer is the ‘wealthy’
Funny thing is, the thing that we need the most I.e. food and drink- we all pay equally!!
The answer is not freebies but a decent minimum wage to ensure that most things are affordable.
That’s why I like the policy of reducing low skilled immigration as it will force up wages because of the shortage.

Joe

@ Sensibledave

I appreciate the big post. Unfortunately ive already said many times what I think is going on. However, if im wrong and SNP performance is down to ability rather than being owned by outside interests then they are the most incompetent shower of limp wristed twats Scotland could ever have been cursed with and need to be replaced asap. Ive made ham sandwiches with more innate leadership qualities and drive than they have shown since the Brexit referendum.

@ Pete

Regarding homosexuality. Im not interested. I dont see why someones sexuality needs to be paraded as some sort of positive (or negative characteristic). What some man or woman likes to legally get up to in their personal life is their business. Its all the LGBT+ fannies that seem to think they need to make it everyone elses business though? In my opinion anyone who see’s that a major defining characteristic for themselves is their sexuality are either sad empty people in need of some meaning in their lives or really do need some meds. Either way, they can keep out of my way whether they be straight or otherwise.

As for the economy – I find this frustrating. There’s a severe amount of ignorance when it comes to this subject but its not something im getting into at the moment. Nobody gives much of a damn anyway…until they actually experience socialist policies 1st hand.

Liz g

Mike Cassidy @ 2.52
Aye and as delusional as ever they were during Indy Ref 1

Joe

@ Liz g

Im not sure what you are on about? Care to explain or is it beyond you?

Wait…ive got a better idea – just say something thick and vaguely dismissive like mike. That’ll do fine 🙂

mike cassidy

Out of curiosity

How do people entitled to a free bus pass abuse it?

Dan

@mike cassidy at 5:28 pm

Re. Abuse of bus pass. Well there was talk of folk taking numerous bus journey “tours” because the bus was comfortably warm and they couldn’t afford to heat their living accommodation.
But that situation says more about how a country like Scotland that is a next exporter of fuel and power still has folk in living in such energy poverty…

Joe

RE: tax payer funded bus pass for under 18’s

On the bright side that gives more freedom to youngsters, less motivation to buy a car, less stress on youngsters that are not well set up in life.

On the bad side that’s companies getting paid for servicing a large section of the population but without the need to take quality or price into consideration.

Dan

Re. Abuse. Just wait till all these Scottish lads Self ID as women so they can get free sanitary products and punt them on ebay to ladies down south…

Of course all these free or subsidised products and services wouldn’t be required in the first place if people actually lived in a society where businesses offered jobs that paid the workers enough of a wage so those employees could actually afford to pay the full price for the product or services.

Joe

There’s only one thing that makes things affordable in real terms.

Supply.

Supply is dependent on enough people being there to make the product or offer the service.

Make too many demands on people who would otherwise make a product or provide a service and they either A: wont or B: go elsewhere to do it.

Money is just a relative measure of value. Its the supply of products or services that determine its worth. Therefore the balancing act is to make money available to people who are disadvantaged while not diminishing the private sector to the point where it all becomes pointless.

There have been very, very, very few politicians of any affiliation with the talent to do that in a way that doesnt end up causing more long term harm than short term good. That long term harm usually forms as government debt which pays the very wealthy nice annual interest on the backs of ordinary people.

The common demands of – we want more jobs, we want more pay and we want you to pay more taxes is all very well but its not quite as easy as that.

As for the very wealthy – as unfair as it might be the more money someone has the less they need to put up with demands from any 1 particular country. If you want their taxes it has to be in a measure that wont get them to leave or you get nothing. Which defeats the point.

Bill Hume.

Joe @6:17
Correct, rich people who pay no taxes in a particular country can up sticks and go elsewhere.
The thing is, the country they leave is no worse off as they were contributing nothing in the first place.

mike cassidy

If you tax the rich, they won’t leave: US data contradicts millionaires’ threats

link to archive.is

cynicalHighlander

I don’t remember back when taxes were 19s 11d in the £1 scores of very wealthy people leaving these shores.

Sandy

Sensibledave. @ 4.08pm.

As a resident, I assume, of England, you have my sympathy for your voting options. Corbyn, as a person comes over as quite a decent chap. Just wish he’d keep out of Scotland as his knowledge of my country is very limited to say the least. The other lot, well***
The two who come to mind are, surprise, surprise, “Back door Boris who’s afraid of journalists” Johnson & his backstabbing best pal (sic) cohort, the sleekid Michael Gove.
And, no surprise, Ms Sturgeon is still the most respected politician/diplomat in the UK, if not in Europe by popular choice. Pay no heed to your fellow trolls.
There’s hope for the real Monster Loony Party yet darn sath.

Willie

Re – concessionary travel.

The issue with concessionary bus travel is all about providing subsidy to deliver services that would otherwise not operate.

Distributing that subsidy principally by extending free fares to senior citizens has very good social benefits. Aside of facilitating services that would otherwise operate, it provides mobility to the elderly, it helps keep them active, it allows them to participate socially whilst for others i5 may even allow them to undertake work paid or unpaid.

It is also good for the environment reducing car journeys, congestion and pollution. So what not to like.

Moreover, extending the scheme to include youngsters many of whom will be students, will also have very worthwhile social benefits. We all like the idea of free education, so why not free bus travel for children, students and apprentices. Indeed, in extending the scheme i5 may we’ll be that this will cost little or no money since increasing the take up numbers whilst reducing the percentage that’s paid over for the fare will have effect of keeping the overall subsidy broadly the same. ( put simply in broad terms the bus needs the same subsidy to run irrespective of whether it has two or twenty two concessionary travellers)

The alternative of course for those who do not agree with subsidised bus routes is of course to let market forces dictate and if a run is unprofitable, then irrespective of it’s need, it should be axed.

One doesn’t need to think too hard to imagine how that would play out. Whole communities isolated, senior citizens isolated, bus drivers and mechanics out of a job, substantially less social interaction and especially so for the elderly man6 of who ever are on restricted incomes.

An enlightened policy and really folks should look past the narrow negative sour and frankly uninformed Tory perspective of somebody getting something for nothing.

Well done the SNP and the Greens for this policy. And if economics be ones driver it has been estimated that a rather modest £250m of subsidy delivers over £2 billion of increased economic activity plus untold health and societal benefits.

I hope these comments are helpful.

Joe

Socialist rhetoric – always bring it down to the very wealthy v the people who have nothing.

Reality – in an independent Scotland ordinary people who have skills and/or money to invest will have a very easy choice if policies are too restrictive on productive people.

What im seeing here is talking points taken from a litany of corrupt, hypocrite leftist politicians down the years.

Hasnt anyone noticed that the talk seems to be about ‘billionaires’ lately instead of ‘millionaires’?

Why would that be? A factor of inflation?

No…its because the lying bastards selling you socialist snake oil are all becoming millionaires themselves, if they didn’t all start out that way to begin with.

Pete

Bill Hume
You are taking extremes as your example.
The Laffer theory expounds that there comes a point when increasing taxes produces lower revenue as the rich either move or find ways round it.
The secret is to find the correct level of taxation which keeps the rich and doesn’t chase them away.
There was a time in the 70’s when the rich could pay tax on a portion of their income at over 90%.
That forced the wealthy, including rock stars to move their residence abroad.
Thatcher came in, reduced the top rates, the rich returned and the government received more money.
Simple economics!!

Joe

@ Willie

I agree in a balance. But one would get the impression that there is such a thing as ‘free’ anything. There isnt. It all comes from someone to someone. Secondly there are definitely systemic negatives that come from this that many appear to want to ignore.

This is the thing. It all makes sense in moderation. The trouble is i can find more chickens teeth than socialists who know where the limit is.

Sinky

Back in the real world. Keiran Jenkins on Channel 4 News has just attacked Scots Gov on support for drug rehabilitation without any info on the £20m budget pledge to support rehabilitation.

Joe

As a personal example my single biggest reason for not living in Europe is that the tax I was paying made life unlivable.

That’s tax that is not going to pay for services or the needs of the vulnerable.

I know a guy who left London to live in Singapore. Again, taxation.

If people want to believe that taxation is not a factor as to where people want to do their business then be my guest.

But then I think the people who are making themselves believe this probably aren’t working 12+ hour days to see most of what the earn taken away from them.

Pete

BillHume
Joe has just personalised my point.

Ian Brotherhood

Got pure Scottophobic shite on Tuesday night while out with brother and his wife in Hebdon Bridge. From a woman (transman?) called Liz dressed as a man. Would’ve been a total scattering match if we hadn’t just left.

Have complained to the venue (‘The Trades’) and the manager has promised to take action.

So sick of this shite.

That place is well-known for being really trendy, politically right-on, open to pretty-much everyone so long as you’re not a fuckin Tory. Mirrors the image of Hebdon Bridge generally. We’ve been in it loads of times and never had the slightest vibe of bother so why it’s happening (and, more worryingly, why no-one intervened) is really worrying. If the whole Brexit scenario is affecting places like that (and they did, to their utter shame, unless I’m mistaken, vote in a Tory) then we are all in serious bother.

And btw, this wasn’t the usual ‘what’s up yer kilt!’ rubbish, it was serious in-yer-face mockery, shouting ‘Dinna fash yersel laddie!’ in a really bad east coast accent, really goading. She hadn’t even been part of the company, someone had told her about ‘the couple of Scots in the corner’. ‘Her’ defence, as we were leaving, was that she had a granny from Dundee.

Fuck that shit. No more.

Dr Jim

Scotlands FM talks to foreigners at Edinburgh castle tonight
Englands PM says she has no right to talk to foreign people

Jimmy Carr points out to his guest comedians on a comedy show when talking about Scottish Independence that they’re all behaving like angry spouses telling their wives that they’re nothing without them as they collectively mock Scotland and angrily claim everything belongs to England

Tory MP Kit Malthouse comes to Scotland for talks on England and Wales drug problems and says the Scottish solutions to drug problems (which are the same as everybody else’s and used around the world and produce good results) are a distraction, so they came all the way to Scotland to say that then refused interviews with journalists preferring to go on the BBC radio

If you’re of the Green persuation you must be astonished at English Tory Ministers massive carbon footprint travelling to Scotland to talk about the place they just came from only to be shot down by Scotlands chief medical officer for
not knowing what they’re talking about

Pete

Dr Jim
All I can say is that our drugs policy hasn’t exactly been successful.
Maybe we are doing the wrong thing?

Dan

@Ian Brotherhood

Yer Hebdon Bridge incident. The locals were ragin’ coz they thought el jocko was doing one of those amazingly lucrative bulk alcohol procurement runs to avoid the minimum pricing policy we have here.
I did a Border Reiver run to Berwick over the festive period and bought a couple of 15 can slabs of Tennent’s Lager for £10.50 which is 1.59 @ litre. That is about 50p @ litre cheaper than I’ve seen in my local shops.
It cost me about 30 quid in fuel for the round trip journey and I don’t even drink lager, but it just feels so good when you score a bargain like that. lol

T’was also fine to see the RBS Bank in the toon had been wrapped in Union Jackass flag bunting for some reason…

mike cassidy

Pete 10.04

I remember the days on this site when trolling was of a high standard.

You current trolls make this guy sound like Einstein.

link to archive.is

Dan

Correction. Just checked my phone pics. T’was Bank of Scotland in Berwick, not RBS.

Joe

@ mike cassidy

Go n read yer Guardian ya fud

vikilix

There has long been legal debate over whether the Scottish Parliament, rather than MPs at Westminster, could pass the laws needed for a new vote on independence to be held – but the matter has never been tested in court.

Dr Jim

Adam Holloway is the new Boris Johnson appointed Minister for rough sleeping and in laying out his strategy towards this new challenging role he said *Many rough sleepers choose to be rough sleepers*

I understand that in the new Boris Johnson order these words mean in percentage terms *very much* or *a lot* followed by %
When quantifying amounts by numbers, that refers to more than you might normally count on your fingers but certainly less than a football stadiums worth of a very big stadium in a land very far away, but could shrink over time, followed by a graph with colours on it and the word optimism used as a pointing stick

Liz g

Mike Cassidy @ 10.04 pm
They did Mike and they even knew that The Guardian is as irrelevant to us as the BBC.
Having said that, when they’re reduced to channelling Margaret ” there is no other way ” Thatcher!
I’m more minded to pity than blame.

To be thinking that the limit of our ambitions for Scotland is a pale imitation of Westminster,doing a pale imitation of Washington,doing a pale imitation of that auld stinking corpse of a British Empire
They really have drunk the Kool aid.

How bloody old is the “don’t tax the rich, they’ll disappear like snaw aff a dyke” troupe now ?
And nae understanding that there are a fair few rich that we actually want to get gone ….but they are taking nothing with them.
The Land owning corporations and billionaires,the oil companies,the Laird’s of all those shooting estates.
They can pay up or fuck off but the Land and the resources, they stay hame!
I can think of one massive shooting estate we can tax the whole of England for 🙂 and a massive Naval Base that would be a right wee ( deficit sized ) money pot if we were stuck.
Also,there are other revenue streams too.
Since we make nae claim to Gibraltar,Spain will have to bring something worthwhile to the table for our fishing water’s!
As will NATO if it wants to continue to use them…
Don’t even get me started on the financial services we can poach from London,not to mention having a stable legal system and EU access opens up mergers and acquisitions at a much more competitive rate.
All before we need to look at massive personal and business tax rate changes.
We make the most of the bounty that IS Scotland and capitalise on that!
But naw, according to the whining of the terrible trio we have to run to catch up to be mimicking the failing UK and US model,cause that’s how the world works and “there is no other way”.
Although to be fair they haven’t said ” Don’t Tread On Me ” should be enshrined in law…. Yet. 🙂

Effijy

Question time last night needs a degree of notice.
Tory MP working to justify the unjustifiable tackled
The Labour MP on how badly Labour controlled
NHS Wales is being run after 20 years of Labour control.

He was about to say Tory England NHS was the best ran service
When he realises it’s Scotland’s NHS.

He could have but off his tongue after but he did say Scotland does very well.

This needs to be recorded and shoved down the Tories, Westminster’s and UK Media throats
On an hourly basis.

Effijy

Greece didn’t tax the rich and to say the least it didn’t go well.

Millionaires who created jobs didn’t pay Tax as they might take the jobs elsewhere?

Doctors would earn €100,000 per annum at minimum.
They where allowed to predict that they would earn half that and pay €2,000 to the tax man
As insurance that if they did earn more, they couldn’t be taxed on it.

Millionaires would buy a peasant farmers small property, build the Taj Mahal on it but leave a corner
Of the property unfinished as no council type tax would be due until the property was fully developed
No limit on time restrictions.

Millionaires are here because they make lots of money and have the government in their pockets
If they move away tax their money as it moves.

Someone else will always be willing to buy a profitable company.

Remember too that England’s richest man has £20 Billion still working in his 60’s
He could spend a £Million every day until he dies and not be broke and yet he is
Looking to relocate to Monaco to avoid paying tax?

That just seems so sick to me as he gazed out at Tory induced Food Banks, period poverty,
Zero hours contracts,Universal Discredit, attacks on the disabled with the bedroom tax but he stil
Wants a bigger slice of the cake and drive the forces of evil further.

Craig Murray

Been missing Wings while having a very tough time in Wolwich. Hope to be back up in Edinburgh soon. Just thought that I would let you know that a member of the Wikileaks team just said to me “we got great support for Julian from the SNP until Alex resigned. Since then absolutely zero except for Craig, who doesn’t count”.

I think they meant the last bit in a kindly fashion! Very true though, and deeply shameful. The snp is much too busy supporting the Britnat Empire nonsense on Syria, Ukraine, the Skripals etc.

Stewart MacDonald FFS.

James

Well done Craig. Your blog is a real eye opener, comparing your reporting to what is not reported in the msm. Tried setting up a monthly dd but the paypal on your site is a pain. Will do it through my bank instead.
If you did not do this how would we know?
Dark days indeed.
Btw. Some moderation on this site would be great.

Joe

@ Effijy

Having lived in a badly governed shithole southern European country I can say hand on heart that everybody from the bottom to the top evades tax to the max. The government answer is to tax the people who cant avoid it all the more. The biggest culprits tend to be the ones doing the taxing

Joe

@ Craig Murray

The SNP will like Assange less when he gets to give evidence against Hillary and others back in the US.

Joe

@ Liz G

So your going to poach financial services from London by having a higher rate of tax on big earners? Ok then.

Liz g

Effigy @ 8.09
Too much is never enough for those types.
The beauty of what I’m suggesting for Scotland is that our main wealth can’t be taken away.
We need to direct taxes at those who must pay or go away.
As I understand it one fifth of Scotland is in the hands of billionaires and private faceless corporations using our land to bank money!
We can’t just take it from them,but this is where we need to Tax. They can sell to whom ever they like and leave,the new owner will still have to pay. They can also just hand the Title back to Holyrood,either way out Land will work for us.

The same goes for the oil and gas companies if they stay they pay,if they go we will have a state oil and gas company like Norway has.
I’ve never been able to find out if NATO pay anything to Westminster to use our waters and airspace,but I cannot imagine that they don’t! Either way after Indy they pay or go away.

Then there’s fishing,why people a taken in by this independent coastal state nonsense is beyond me!
If it’s perfectly fine to sell the rights to “foreigners” for the oil and gas in our waters why are fish suddenly sacrosanct?
If a decent price in what ever form comes to the Scottish Treasury it doesn’t matter which fleet is doing the fishing.
And in the early days of Indy Scotland doesn’t have much of a fleet anyway.

The very wealthy,I understand,pay a lot of money to blast Scottish wildlife to bits…let’s just see how much they are actually willing to pay before they go else where too?

All of this is entirely possible with the political will to do it and then and only then do we turn to business and personal tax.
While I can’t say for sure, apparently, “a land value tax” would not only be fairer but would fund the council’s and end the need for the Poll Tax……. As I was alluding to above ” there is Always another way ” and Scots are particularly good at exploring innovative change that the rest of the globe embrace,to tax properly and share wealth fairly shouldn’t be beyond our ken!
Considering the mess the Capitalism and Communism have made no before time either…

Liz g

Joe @ 9.02
Read it again Joe…. Slowly…

iain mhor

My consumed media roundup for February.
Concerted attacks on the SNP, Labour and the LibDems.
The Tories? Meh.
Odd, it’s almost as if…. nah.

Republicofscotland

So Willie (Never to independence ) Rennie, has point blankly refused to apologise for his partys whitewash of #Paedogate.

However Rennie has praised to high heaven David Steel. The damning child report by (IICSA) effectively showed that Cyril Smith confessed to Steel, of what he did to little boys at a local childrens home.

Steel who led the Lib/Dems from 1976 to 1988, even recommended Cyril Smith for a knighthood.

Rennie bent over backwards yesterday to inform journalists of just how good a politician Steel is.

What a wee vile man Rennie is, lets kick him and his band of paedo apologists out of Holyrood next year.

Republicofscotland

Johnson wants to stuff the Scottish Affairs Committee full of English Tories, the (SAC) oversees and scrutinises Johnsons staging post in Scotland, the Scotland Office.

This would lead to the Tory led (SAC) doing more damage to Scotland, via the Scotland Office than they’re doing at present.

link to thenational.scot

Golfnut

@Liz g.

Nor will any action that you have proposed prevent, hinder or put off inward investment into Scotland. Massive structural change in Scotland will happen, not might happen, but will happen.

Dan

@Liz g at 9.07am

Don’t forget our electricity production.
Current UK demand is approximately 40GW.
Scotland’s population makes up approximately 10% of the UK, so I presume we are using around 4GW of that 40GW figure.
But when you look at the system transfers within the GB Grid you can see that Scotland is currently exporting 3.8GW to England, so it appears we are creating almost double the power we actually use.*

*I’d appreciate if anyone with more specific knowledge on this subject could chip in to confirm this is correct.

link to extranet.nationalgrid.com

link to gridwatch.templar.co.uk

Graeme McCormick who occasionally posts on here has spent time looking at and giving talks on Annual Ground Rent / Land Tax Reform.
It is a very interesting subject and he has evolved the concept several times so that it could include a universal basic income which covers the problems with state unemployment payments and the issues with pension provision due to differences is birth rate trends over time.

Golfnut

@ RepublicofScotland

Johnson’s intentions regarding the SAC are pretty clear and presents a clear opportunity for Scottish MP’s to reform the Scottish Grand Committee, preferably by withdrawal from westminster to sit in Scotland permanently, review the Treaty of Union breaches with a view to repeal the Acts of Union and withdraw from the Treaty.

Republicofscotland

Scottish Health secretary Jean Freeman has had to have a police officer stationed near her constituency after numerous threats of violence to her, and an arrest of one man.

We can partly thank the unionist media for this ramping up of blame to the point of violence.

As Freeman says I’m not personally responsible for every NHS mistake, however I am accountable for how well our NHS performs.

We have the best performing NHS in the UK.

I bet Matt Hancock hasn’t go a police officer standing outside his constituency office.

Famous15

Steel is not the only deaf Libdem. Deafness is not an excuse as the people I know who are deaf keep reminding me.

Joe

@ Liz G

Your telling me to read your comment slowly but have assumed im a Unionist and a Thatcherite. Also if you believe that the US hasnt done well relatively, especially in the last few years, then youve not been paying attention

Joe

Its funny but with the Yes movement if you are not basically a socialist you are just a Unionist in disguise.

Thats not the best recruiting stance for the cause

Joe

Increasingly in public basic perception voting for Scottish independence = higher taxes, nanny state, dimunition of womens rights/safety, public officials deaf to complaint and signing on to another dying and corrupt political union…and anyone who sees the problem is a troll? The future is bright i can tell

Republicofscotland

Joanna Cherry and why shes standing as a possible MSP.

link to thenational.scot

Meanwhile Highland SNP MSP Gail Ross is standing down next year, as is the SNP’s James Doran, Richard Lyle and Bruce Crawford.

Also standing down next year are Labours Neil Findlay, Tory Ruth Davidson, and Green MSP John Finnie.

gus1940

Why has this site’s WGD Link been disappeared?

I noticed in yesterday’s Daily Heil an article on WW2 which referred on 2 occasions to England’s Royal Air Force.

Republicofscotland

“Why has this site’s WGD Link been disappeared ”

I think the Rev and the Dug got into a wee stooshie over a comment on the Dugs site by the Rev.

Republicofscotland

“noticed in yesterday’s Daily Heil an article on WW2 which referred on 2 occasions to England’s Royal Air Force.”

Well, it is Englands, is it not?

Republicofscotland

Nasty Tory Annie Wells is way out of her depth here, as usual.

It would fit Wells better if she held her London master Kit Malthouse to account over point blankly denying Scotland the right to open a (DCR) Drugs Consumption Room which could save lives as it is doing in Copenhagen right now.

But no, as usual Wells has England’s interests at heart and not Scotlands.

link to thenational.scot

cirsium

@Craig Murray, 8.33

Well said.

Socrates MacSporran

Republic of Scotland I have repeatedly advocated, on these threads, that the SNP MPs make greater use of the Scottish Grand Committee to put a spanner in the works of Westminster.

If every item of business which affected Scotland had to be discussed by the SGC, it would not half piss-off the Tories and mess-up their business agenda.

Then, when every item brought forward and agreed on by the SGC was immediately voted down by the Tories, it would surely let even the dimmest Proud Scot But, Unionist see just how little England thinks of us – and surely persuade more that Independence is the only way forward for Scotland.

Blair Paterson

If we on here know what to do to confront all the Tory wrongs on Scotland why do the SNP not appear to know what to do their silence on these wrongs are beyond belief .Come on SNP do something now

jfngw

It’s shows how far we’ve fallen when a tweet from Murdo Fraser actually makes more sense than the crap coming out of some SNP people. Just think of that, some of our SNP politician’s are actually worse than Murdo Fraser, how could that be possible and why are they still in the SNP.

jfngw

@gus1940

I suspect this is because WGD deleted a comment from RevStu on his site. Unfortunately, IMO. the WGD is intolerant of even he mildest criticism of the SNP and will remove the post.

jfngw

How do you get 1 + 1 = 5, you put James Kelly and Annie Wells in the same room to do the sums.

Scozzie

Craig Murray @ 8.33pm
It is utterly shameful that the SNP has not spoken out on the human rights violation of Assange. Nothing more that WM puppies.

Thank you for all you’ve done on the Assange case. Julian Assange is the biggest political prisoner case of the 21st century and the world is willfully ignoring the importance of this in terms of the future impact on journalism and publishing.

As for Oz, they are even more shameful. Living here, I cannot get over how absolutely no-one cares – the people, journalists, government etc it’s just not on the radar. It’s so very tragic.

I know you have Roger Waters but I think there has to be high profile Oz supporters to try to get Aussies engaged to help free Assange. Does Roger Waters have contacts?

For SNP peeps – given the SNP is doing hee-haw on independence right now, please direct your support to Assange via social media, protests, writing to MPs, etc etc.

If people want a free press and whistle-blowers to be truth tellers then the Assange case is the most important judicial case in ther entire world. This is Global Elite vs us Plebs. people in the UK please stand up.

Liz g

Joe @ 10.01
And I’m telling ye that again Joe…. I’ve said nothing of the kind.
How are we ment to take any of your comments seriously when you are struggling so much to comprehend a half dozen or so paragraphs?
Then project what you think I said into your reply!
Accuracy is important for credibility joe!

lothianlad

Many things have been bugging me lately about the apathetic SNP, I am an SNP member and joined before sturgeon, so I have shown my fair share of loyalty over the years, not to mention the hudresds and hundresds of hours campaigning for the party I believed was committed to Independence.

But… the strategy of the SNP is way off what is needed. I know Im not the only one who is utterly pissed of at the SNP always meekly explaining and pandering to the vicious questions and attacks from opponents.

The numner of times we have had weakness from the SNP in response to the attacks is infuriating, when we could so easily turn the tables and have the unionists on the ropes dodging for cover every time!!

The SNP has stopped being fighters and have become the nicey nice explainers trying to give reasoned arguments to every single whine and gripe from opponments.

How many times has sturgeon been interviewed by a unionist media clown and taken hit after hit when the response could have been so much more devestating!!

Explaining about domestic policy that is being attacked for lack of investment etc, could so easily be turned on the unionists by rightly stating that the Scotting parliament does not have full access to our massive natural resources which only Independence can bring. Policy is managed in at tight budget within the barnet formula.

Being nice just isnt cutting it. How many of us have sceamed at the telly or radio demanding the SNP hit back, but no… this pathetically weak response only gives credence to our unionist attackers in the eyes of the public because its not challenged.

I know the unionist media is the worst in the world and will manipulate SNP bad stories to the hilt, but in an interview the SNP can really hit back but they dont!!

Ive often wondered why,, but its clear that the SNP p;olicy strategists dont want this. Its as if the top brass are comfortable with the status quo!

Are the birbed, blackmailed and or infiltrated by the british secret service?? They have to be!!
Fucking things up this close to independence can only be done by them!

Those of us who are SNP members must act now to have the leadership removed!! The focus must be on independence as craig murray says!
Begging for Wesminsters consent, legitimises their claims of soverignty. WE the People of Scotland are soverign!
Time the people made the SNP leadership aware of this!!!

Ottomanboi

Abandon reason all who dwell on planet Earth?
Thunberg idolatry and COVID-19 panic, to cite but two manias.
What greater destruction to civilization Hitler might have achieved with ‘social media’ access.
All those zombie ‘brains’ to feed on.

Joe

@ Liz G

Quote – ‘They did Mike and they even knew that The Guardian is as irrelevant to us as the BBC.
Having said that, when they’re reduced to channelling Margaret ” there is no other way ” Thatcher!
I’m more minded to pity than blame.’

Quote ‘Aye and as delusional as ever they were during Indy Ref 1’

So im a thatcherite and Unionist apparently. FFS

You do not need to tell me what Scotland economic potential is so I dont see the point in responding to that. We appear to be on the same page on that.

However you have done exactly what I was saying before – im not specifically talking about billionaires.

Im talking about more or less ordinary people with ability to earn who will have the option of taking a very short drive to another very similar English speaking country should Scotland prove to be too oppressive tax-wise and do business there.

Do what you do best Liz and hold that Saltire, eh?

Republicofscotland

Tory List MSP, Adam Tomkins getting it in the neck for joke like innuendo about child sex abuse.

link to thenational.scot

Meanwhile the Bank of Scotland prints new £20 pound note with the Queensferry Crossing on it. No doubt Alex Cole-Hamilton will find something wrong with the note.

Maybe the note will ice up under unusual weather conditions, or it will fly out of your hands in a strong wind, or it will be too broad for ones wallet. I’m sure Cole Hamilton will say something to turn heads away from the Lib/Dems paedo whitewash scandal.

Meanwhile the first person from the UK has died from the Coronavirus, on a ship in Japan.

link to thenational.scot

dakk

With free tuition fees, free personal care and free prescriptions the vast majority of ordinary taxpayers in Scotland would have to be paying PAYE for 150 years before they would be worse off with the Scottish income tax rate.

That would explain why English people are coming to work/live here in record numbers, and Ive heard of no idiot who has left for England because of a miniscule tax rise here.

willie

Craig Murray @ 8.33

Points taken absolutely. Post Alec Salmond the SNP has morphed into the pretendy independence party.

Quite why this has happened I do not know.

Nor do I know why why Nicola Sturgeon has allowed two of the most talented people in the SNP to go head to head in a gladiatorial contest to secure the nomination for Edinburgh Central Hollyrood seat.

Both could have been found seats without the need for a damaging fight where someone has to lose – and Angus Robertson has this week already gone to press criticising in all but name Joanna Cherry as being a part time candidate without experience.

What is going on. Why has the First Minister effectively abandoned independence and allowed us to be dragged out of Europe. Why is she allowing a divisive fight between two very capable politicians. Something is wrong. Something has changed. Why?

And why is it when you ask a question like this you get howls of comments that one is a shit stirrer.

cynicalHighlander

@ Joe says:
28 February, 2020 at 2:49 pm

Im talking about more or less ordinary people with ability to earn who will have the option of taking a very short drive to another very similar English speaking country should Scotland prove to be too oppressive tax-wise and do business there.

That is just nonsense on stilts get real.

Republicofscotland

“Im talking about more or less ordinary people with ability to earn who will have the option of taking a very short drive to another very similar English speaking country should Scotland prove to be too oppressive tax-wise and do business there.”

The overal tax burden in Scotland is lower than for the UK as a whole thanks to lower income tax levels for 56% of payers. Lower rate poundage for 95% of businesses and lower average domestic rates (by 28%).

Also there are no university tuition fees, benefits are higher thanks to the new Scottish Child Payment, and there is free homecare for the elderly. Meanwhile under Tory as you say just a short drive away, UK taxes are at their highest since WWII.

Deloitte states that: Lower earners continue to pay less tax that those in the rest of the UK. As a result 56% of taxpayers in Scotland pay less income tax than if they lived in another part of the UK.

In February the Scottish Budget thresholds for Basic and Intermediate rate payers were frozen. While those for Higher and Top Rate payers rose in line with inflation.

Liz g

Joe @ 2.49
Sigh…nope …third time wasn’t the charm then!
I said your bought what Thatcher was selling and are still running with it.
And I’d demonstrated that we’ve a way to go yet before we get to ordinary tax pay’ers.
Jumping to the assumption that it will be the ordinary worker’s and their employers who will bear the burden of paying for the services that the people of Scotland enjoy is a blinkered view,which gave the impression that you infact were not aware of the extent of the resources Scotland has to utilise.
But we can only realise that potential if we Do Not follow the old failing doctrines of the UK & US that you assert we don’t really understand.
And for the avoidance of doubt following socialist magical thinking would be utter madness too.
While I did all of that, and gave you three opportunities to comprehend it…… I still didn’t call you a unionist I only indicated you a fool to be regurgitating the received wisdom of carpetbaggers!

The so called great and the good the world over, who follow the doctrines of capitalist and socialist/communist systems had them put in place when the population was quite ignorant of the wealth and resources available to them….
Why I say we can do this differently is precisely because a fair few of us in Scotland have a good idea of Scotland’s actual wealth now.
All we need to get started is our government brought within slapping distance.
So you and your two buddies can keep punting a mini me Westminster all ye like.
But most people here are well beyond believing “there is no other way”and have been for quite some time…

twathater

Right fuck it , Liz g get yer arse in gear and set up a perty alang wi that mental opposer to the woke fantasists SC , we need someone wi spirit , aggression , sense of right and wrong , determined and down to earth , to get us out of this shithole mess that we have been suckered into

I like your proposals upthread Liz and they are workable and worthwhile , we need people to waken up and smell the rancid fecal matter that is coming our way if our representatives don’t get their fingers oot their arses and MOVE

Joe

Yep. You are all correct now that I think about it. People who work for their living wouldn’t worry about taxes going up on the backs of socialistic policies.

So, now that Boris is in number 10 with a huge majority and the Scottish electorate voted 60%+ for something that isnt being granted for a subordinate future inside little Britain…how about we address that indy support number that can never seem to hold for long above 50%…

Hmmm…that’s a puzzler so it is. Why would that be?

Joe

@ Liz G

Banter aside I like a lot of what you say.

Cheers

Republicofscotland

Re my last comment on tax.

As a result of the 2020 Scottish budget more than 95% of properties in Scotland, will be subject to lower rate poundage than they would face in othsr parts of the UK. Some like to perpetuate the myth of a high tax Scotland.

The fact is since the Tories came to power in 2010, the overall tax burden in the UK (expressed as a share of National Income) has infact risen.

According to the (IFS) Institute for Fiscal Studies total UK tax revenues will reach £760 billion in 2019/20 or 34.5% of National Incomethe highest sustained share since WWII.

Tory policies since 2010 have increased overall tax revenue by about £20 billion altogether desite large giveaways increasing the income tax personal allowance cutting the headline rate of cirporation tax and freezing fuel duties.

Tax raising measures including regressive rises on VAT and National Insurance contributions exceeded these giveaways overall in revenue terms.

As a result low income households in the UK have lost out overall especially those with children the poorest 10% of households have seen losses of over 11% of their income (£1,200 per year) on average, among those with children the figures rises to 20% (£4000).

Confused

ian brotherhoods experience he recounted last night left a nasty aftertaste …

– this is why, I canny be bothered with the whole damn lot of them; we should “ghost” them once independent and build the wall against the english, that trump said he would build against the mexicans

– honestly, fuck the lot of them. Now this goes against the “wings etiquette” of being over-precise and caveating-everything-to-fuck when discussing “the english” but … spare me … don’t give me “the working class of liverpool and the working class of glasgow”, bbc, guardian, “the english left” – they are no allies to us.

– they are ALL just fucking awful CUNTS, and they should “do one” from our country

and … they are culpable, for they keep voting in vampiric tory arseholes, or spook created “moving the overton window to the right” acts like farage.

I spend a lot of time reading awful crap in other places – it’s ignorant, arrogant, narcissistic, xenophobic, kleptocratic – and all I can say is low grade idiots like FUD-man are the nice and reasonable end; shit they talk – “the anglosphere”, get brexit done, enoch was right, bring back mosley, its the EU wot let in all the pakis … brexit will disappoint, but the bomb of it has yet to land.

– which made the FMs strenuous attempts to “save england from itself” (a ridiculous folly) so infuriating.

This is one drawback of “democracy” – you get 10 morons who know fuckall, one guy who is an expert – but then you decide what to do with a show of hands … or 550 MPs against 59.

Online I don’t bother debating these pricks – you can post all the data, mccrone, jappy, colin dunns stuff – but it never registers, they are addicted to their own confirmation bias, so I just -troll the shit out of them- … bait them, e.g. saying “england does not exist” youze are all reject-germans, or “it was the scots who built the empire” or “the english ran like cowards at dunkirk while the highlanders fought” … all is fair, in love and war, or national liberation struggles.

I have my fun, and that’s all that matters

– now someone will say “I am english”/”my granny is english” – whataboot “english scots for yes” … so what? You do not base policy on outliers, on the statistically insignificant – these can be handled on a case by case basis.

Dr Jim

It’s always been in the best interests of England if Scots leave Scotland

First they killed us, then they threw us off our land and out of our homes, then they dispatched us to countries throughout the world, then they even paid our cheap fares to emigrate to other countries promising wonderous new lives for us if we’d just get out of Scotland, they moved our work places to England and told us to do well in School so we could get jobs in the big London (they called that the brain drain at that time) even today they’ve paid money to companies like Youngs fish processors and others to move to England a method they’ve always engaged when they decide
leaving those Scottish workers to seek work wherever they could, and in between all that they conducted wars in which strangely the percentage of Scottish soldiers killed was higher than that of England (are our lads worse at fighting than anybody else? I doubt it)

We were going to have a referendum to leave Englands political system in 2014, what did England do, did they say oh we’re sorry to hear that, did they even say maybe we haven’t been fair to Scotland, did they even say let’s talk about how we can solve this problem like grown ups, no, they didn’t say anything like that

The threatened us with starvation of income, withdrawal of businesses, closure of banks, refusal of the use of an International trading currency, they employed ex politicians like Gordon Brown to threaten blood bank closures and co operation and the denial of pensions to the elderly, all of which were lies

Aye England is great we should defo stick with them, look at all the advantages of having neighbours who really like us and beg us not to leave them or they’ll punish us to hell

We’d be nothing without them

Liz g

Republicofscotland @ 3.25
LOL forgot that bit….
This also makes the assumption that tax just that short drive away won’t be increased to make up the shortfall of Scotland’s resources and tax take being brought back home!!
That Westminster can carry on spending at the same level and not raise the tax burden on their own population!
To sneer at Scotland competing with London when it’s no rocket science to work out that Glasgow could comfortably double it’s conference and corporate accommodation prices and still undercut London…. a 40 min train ride away from the seat of law and government and less of a target for nutters who either want to shut the city down to wave flags a billionaires or ejjits who attack people randomly and drive cars at them.
Aberdeen office space is better value for money than London which bodes well for it as the oil capital of Europe!
Dundee as the centre of culture media and sport.
Inverness could handle banking and finance And so on And so fourth…. not compete with London my aunt fanny..
Once in place the market would pretty much take care of the Cities leaving us to develop rural Scotland

And we’ve no even included that Scotland won’t be contributing her tithe to the hallowed halls of Westminster or funding their vanity projects either 🙂
Handled right we would probably be looking around for more free stuff to share out.. 🙂 🙂 🙂

twathater

Joe can I tell you why that number of 50%+ does not appear to be going up ,it is because we have a SNP government who cannot get airtime or newspaper articles to PROVE how well Scotland is run , the bias of the MSM is PROVEN time and time again , and even when given ANY airtime they FAIL MISERABLY in refuting any and all accusations

When you are having a daily brainwashing infusion of negativity from all TV ,radio , and mainstream newspapers it is a miracle that we have reached 52% , not only that it is worse when the SNP SG embrace these charlatans and tractors and when giving press interviews they always pick these same chancers toodleoo , kuenssberg , smith and company which gives them credibility

Clydebuilt

Prof. Danny Dorling Oxford University
BBC4’s Beyond 100 Days

” infant mortality began to rise in 2015 and each year thereafter more babies died at a higher rate in England. They didn’t in Scotland, where they actually decided to spend more on infants and babies and they have reduced the infant mortality rate”

” England is getting to be more like a state of the United States. Scotland interestingly is moving towards being like the Scandanavian countries which have incredibly good health outcomes”

link to talkingupscotlandtwo.com

Clapper57

Apparently, being reported, UK Government ministers are refusing to appear on the main radio news programme of the so called largest public-service broadcaster, even to explain what’s going on with the #COVID2019 crisis?……….

Also now not allowed to say the word BREXIT….obvs this new Tory adopted strategy is post GE 2019 Tory ‘Get Brexit Done’ slogan to win over Brexiteer voters…..do they think if we all stop using the word we will just forget it is happening ?

Also not allowed to use term ‘No Deal’….connotations and all that old chap.

Are they doing an Edna Rennie…..

Talking of Edna Brass neck Rennie….I see the man with NO SHAME has had a Union uber alles puff piece published in the Scotsman…the Unionist enabler newspaper……sweep sweep deflect deflect…when is that non entity going to be held to account and challenged for readmitting a child molesting enabler back into the party…..when will the Lib Dem ‘inquiry’ into Steel last year be released….or challenged as to how they came to their ultimate conclusion that Steel was not guilty of turning a blind eye thus enabling Smith to continue abusing both children and the position Steel allowed him to hold within the Lib Dems.

“I Vant to be Alone”…..” You vill not mention ze word Brexit oder ze terminology No Deal as reference as to ze means by vich vee vill depart from ze Union of ze EU”……” Also you vill not mention Cyril Smith oder David Steel or ze inquiry vee held last year ven talking vith me ze Edna Rennie”……translated ” Are vee, ze Unionists parties, ze baddies ?”

The Scotsman…”Hi Willie also known as Edna…please allow us to help you out of your current, and if you were SNP ‘untenable’ position, which we will try to deflect by allowing you, although at a most inappropriate time, the opportunity to divert the attention away from the Lib Dems current ‘awkward’ position and draw upon your support for the Union against the SNP’s awful position on independence……

it is our role BTW, Willie aka Edna, to deflect attention away, or rather ignore altogether, from Unionist scandals and UnionBad stories and to focus pretty much 24/7 upon SNPBAD/IndependenceBad stories…both real (in our own special Unionist concocted way) and also by using our most imaginatively contrived version of Unionist ‘truth’, against both independence and the SNP ,when the Pro Union chips are seemingly down………….thinking of you Willie aka Edna at this most precarious time…if we, the Scotsman, can be of any further help should this ugly situation re Smith and Steel rear up again then let us know”…..

BTW See yon Tory on BBC QT bigging up Scotland against Wales…obvs Jonathan Ashworth Labour dismissing it in a way that came over as it being a ludicrous assertion…..as per Labour never ever miss an opportunity to declare ‘Scotland is Sheeite’…….while in denial about badly run Labour Wales….their current achilles heel…..one of many……they even had yon Ian Murray coming LAST in Deputy leadership elections….Scotland lead us don’t leave us….just don’t get too ambitious in the labour party and think you can lead us in any way via deputy position in our party….Lol

Liz g

Joe @ 3.45
Nothing up wi banter Joe,or a different of opinion 🙂

Republicofscotland

“Ruth Davidson has been urged to resign after it emerged she was paid £7500 on top of her Holyrood salary to appear as a pundit on ITV’s election night show.”

link to thenational.scot

Dr Jim

Ruth Davidson should have been fired for never having conducted constituency surgeries which is a requirement of the job of every MSP, that’s what the public vote for, a representative for them in parliament

Clapper57

@ liz g

Hi Liz how you doin ?

My God Liz you are fair gaen it laldy Lol

Guid on ye….your no feart….wish I was as brave as you..your a good girl..Lol…who BTW is STILL the only one on here who I will accept, with grace,to call me Flapper….seriously considering changing me mantle to FlapperGirl49…..Lol

Republicofscotland

“Glasgow City Council has agreed to fund 70 organisations, through its Children’s Holiday Food Programme, with £2.3million to deliver a wide-ranging programme of free healthy meals and activities during school breaks.”

link to archive.fo

Liz g

Twathater @ 3.38
Ha….I’m holding oot fur Queen of the Scots because I want those landowners in ma sights…. 🙂
That’s where I tell them I’m ending hereditary wealth!
If they didn’t earn it, or cause it to be there,beyond their dwelling they don’t get to hand it to their offspring.
They buy the use of the land and resources to make their money but, when they pop off,their kid’s only get first refusal to purchase it.. Ultimately Scotland belongs to the Scots….. As they say….in perpetuity 🙂
So their kids better start skilling up and earning 🙂

Liz g

Clapper 57 @ 4.25
Hey flapper…. 🙂
Hope this finds ye well…
You’d think I didn’t have a million and one things to be doing the day….
I honestly need to get me backside in gear and switch this thing off…. LOL
Take care of you my friend xxx

Republicofscotland

“LOL forgot that bit…”

That’s alright Liz, I had the figures at hand, busting the higher tax myth is akin to busting the old we’ll need to use the Euro right away, or there’s no oil and gas left in the North sea.

Republicofscotland

Here’s a piccy of the new Bank of Scotland £20 pound note, with the Queensferry Crossing on it.

Shut your eyes Mr Cole-Hamilton.

link to thenational.scot

Republicofscotland

Being part of the union is bad for your health if you’re poor.

“A study has linked a spike in mental-health problems among the unemployed with the rollout of universal credit and other government welfare changes.”

“The number of unemployed people with psychological distress rose 6.6% between 2013 and 2018, it suggests.”

“And this represents an extra 63,674 people in England, Wales and Scotland – 21,760 of whom became clinically depressed over the period.”

link to archive.fo

Breeks

Socrates MacSporran says:
28 February, 2020 at 11:55 am
Republic of Scotland I have repeatedly advocated, on these threads, that the SNP MPs make greater use of the Scottish Grand Committee to put a spanner in the works of Westminster.

The problem is, you could give the SNP a Challenger Tank to bully it’s way around the House of Commons, but it wouldn’t do you any good if there is no appetite for putting it to good use.

You have Scottish Sovereignty, the ultimate casting vote on what does or doesn’t happen to Scotland, yet it’s ignored time and time again.

lothianlad says:
28 February, 2020 at 1:14 pm

….Are the birbed, blackmailed and or infiltrated by the british secret service?? They have to be!!
Fucking things up this close to independence can only be done by them!

Something stinks, yes, but you have to determine what, what can be done to fix it, can the damage that’s been done be reversed, or is it better to cut your losses and start fresh.

This insipid SNP attitude has cost us a lot. If the Scottish Governments attitude toward Brexit negotiations was as lame and anaemic as their apathy about Brexit itself, is it any wonder Scotland was excluded from the negotiations?

We should have had a Scottish Backstop even stronger than the Irish Backstop, but instead, complete disinterest from the SNP.

An emphatic Democratic majority to oppose Brexit from a population that is Constitutionally sovereign, and the SNP didn’t want to touch it with a barge pole. Within hours the mandate was already compromised because the SNP led the charge to forfeit Brexit and Scottish Constitutional Sovereignty on condition that Scotland kept access to the single market.

Party of Independence? You’re having a laugh.

Every root and branch of the YES movement has been starved of nutrients since 2015. Blogs and Scotland’s burgeoning new media have been left to their own devices and abandoned to sink or swim. If it wasn’t brand SNP, it didn’t happen.

The SNP drop or alienate YES, Wings, Craig Murray, Grousebeater, AUOB, collectively known as the YES Movement, and drop their own Neale Hanvey and effectively forfeit a seat when every seat mattered. Anti-Semitic? Behave. Now he’d deserve to be sacked if he’d something utterly stupid, like taking a drag act into a primary school… oh.

Then there is Theresa’s May Election which the SNP barely summoned any enthusiasm to fight.

Then there is this infuriating adherence to a Section 30 route to a Referendum. Is it only me who thinks something stinks when the “ONLY” legal route to an IndyRef just “happens” to be the very route which the U.K. Government can arbitrarily kill off with a flick of the wrist? Funny that.

Let’s not overlook the bushwhacking of Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson losing their seats, and the way the Scottish Government altered rules retrospectively to injure Mr Salmond…

Ian Blackford… Scotland will not be Brexited against it’s will… Aye, wheesht Ian Blackford.. Did you ever hear Sturgeon say it? Did ye no read the memo?

In fact, since 2014/15, the SNP Government under Sturgeon has really done virtually NOTHING to advance the interests of Independence, but meantime it’s gone out of it’s way to indulge this Woke bollocks to alienate the entire female electorate. Kinda weird priorities for the party of Independence. Is than an unfair thing to say? I’m trying to recall…

The only glimmer of light there has been since 2015 is the glacial and painfully slow improvement in the polls, for which the SNP wants to claim all the credit, but which they’ve done nothing, and I mean absolutely NOTHING to cultivate or nurture. Boris Johnson and Theresa May did more to shift opinion than the SNP. Just look at any No to YES video and listen to the monologue.

Talk about playing for the draw… Ask yourself a truly nasty and uncomfortable question…Now just for arguments sakes, just IF, you know, IF the SNP actually wanted Independence to stutter and fail, and enthusiasm and momentum to be lost and give way to pernicious attrition designed to lower the spirits of the YES movement… well, wouldn’t you have to say the SNP were certainly posing some awkward questions?

And the latest joyful incredulity? Joanna Cherry and Angus Robertson fighting the same seat, and while the SNP squeals about a possible List Party splitting the Indy vote… Who needs a List Party when the SNP can split it’s own vote? Don’t you think “Somebody” is taking the piss?

It’s quite a track record when you sit down and go through it.

I think there is something very, very, rotten here, and we really do need a stewards enquiry into our lame and spineless Scottish Government. This is not apathy. This is not merely incompetence. This is not inaction bred of cowardice. This more and more looks like the wilful and deliberate undermining of Scottish Independence. Somebody needs to ask some poignant questions at Spring Confer… oh.

I confess, I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am 100% behind Scotland developing a second Independence Party. Screw the list seats, we need a whole party in reserve, because there may be something fundamentally wrong with the A-team. I fear there is a credible possibility that it might have a black heart.

Maybe we should ask Gandalf to pop in on his travels and rap Nicola on the nose with his wizard’s staff, just to see if anything strange happens…

Meantime, I’m backing Team Cherry, and I can tell you, it’s a great positive feeling when feel the doubts just start to wash away…

Socrates MacSporran

I have to admit. I like the cut of this chap Breeks jib. He’s posting a lot of sensible stuff these days.

robertknight

Breeks @ 5:12

“Something stinks, yes, but you have to determine what”

Ever heard of Kompromat?


“compromising information collected for use in blackmailing, discrediting, or manipulating someone, typically for political purposes”.

Call me paranoid, but I have difficulty believing that our current constitutional situation is the result of simple incompetence on the part of the SNP ‘leadership’ and nothing else.

Terry

@breeks
Nailed it.

liz

@Breeks, absolutely.
Something stinks to high heaven but there are still too many – NS walks on water types to get rid of her.

She’s surrounded herself with nodding dogs.
The fact this so called feminist, is making women jump through hoops to justify our rights, enshrined in law when we should be pushing for indy, shouts volumns.

I keep hoping the AS trial will be the start of a fight back.
AS must be distraught seeing the mess she’s made since she took over.

I agree, we need a new indy party.
I hope Joanna gets the nomination but I wouldn’t rule out dirty tricks there either.
AR is an arrogant arse, he got pulled up for saying Edin Central was one of the top constituencies, like the others were rubbish

Hammerton

The SNP are killing independence for me.
I believe in independence not membership of the EU which is not independence.
I don’t believe in self declaration.
I don’t believe in legalised drug consumption rooms.
I certainly don’t believe that people under the age of 25 should avoid prison because of their age – WTF?
No SNP votes from me, someone else needs to take up the independence reins.

Ron Maclean

The Scottish Grand Committee was described as neither Scottish nor Grand.

Joe

@ twathater

Ive been telling people the mainstream media is a shitpit of lies and propaganda since about year 2000 when I got rid of my TV. I do understand the hand they have played in the indy argument.

However its not just the media that is turning people off now. Its a portion of the Yes movement and the SNP.

Anyone who looks at the current SNP and their activists and doesnt feel something of a chill at the 1984 style of the fuckers and what being run as an independent country by them would be like isnt really thinking in my opinion.

We all seem to be wisening up to the SNP now. Thats good. Its just the tip of the iceberg though.

As for tax – my main point about tax is not as things are. Its as things may well be under the kind of government we will get if Scotland actually became independent on the terms with which we are dealing.

Im sorry, i’ll repeat, if that’s not bringing a pang of concern then your not thinking.

Now heres why im a disrespectful arsehole to you all about it – you were warned. By myself and a few others, mostly notably WOS, but nearly everyone wanted to bury their heads in the sand and pretend we were just paranoid.

People cant afford to be this naive if you ever want to have a government that is operated for the benefit of the people and you can’t expect people who are not convinced by indy yet to ever be convinced by the kind of garbage that is currently on offer.

Bob Mack

‘@ Breeks

Excellent post

cirsium

well said, Breeks (5.12pm) and liz (5.58pm)

dakk

Let’s not kid ourselves SNP has suddenly become a colonial management government within the UK.

Much though I like and respect Alex Salmond, even under his governance pre indyref I used to rail as to why the entire Scottish population were not made aware of McCrone and the fact Scotland subsidises the thieving liars of britain.

Alex also appointed as leader of the Yes campaign that tosser Blair Drummond.

SNP since being in government have been successful in governing Scotland extremely well as part of the UK.

The nice softly sofly approach re Scotland’s abuse and exploitation at the hands of the british liars and theives is nothing new imo.

Republicofscotland

“Alex also appointed as leader of the Yes campaign that tosser Blair Drummond.”

You mean Blair Jenkins, Blair Drummond is a small community five miles North-West of Stirling.

Golfnut

If your not following Craig Murray’s commentary on the Julian Assange’s extradition, then I would recommend that you do. Not just because the machinations of the British state are in full view but because there are some very interesting points in the commentary( Tony Dawson), as well as the article regarding domestic law and Treaties.

Brian Doonthetoon

link to en.wikipedia.org

No comment from me, although I did converse with him at a “media” event at the DCA in Dundee, back in the day.

sassenach

We are all feeling the despair of seemingly very little happening regarding Indy, but it was McMillan who once said “Events, dear boy, events” when asked about governance.

Just lately there have been ‘events’ causing worldwide stock market crashes, virus health issues, climate change issues etc – it would be suicidal to be attempting to be playing the ‘sovereignty’ card (or anything else) at this time!

Imagine Carlot, Leopold and Runny hitting us with “All you ever think about is Indy, even when there are real crises”.
Hold hard, mes braves!!

dakk

@sassenach
‘McMillan who once said “Events, dear boy, events” when asked about governance.’

It wasn’t McMillan who said that. It was me on this blog 2 days ago 🙂

But you’re correct.

A referendum anytime soon would be a farce,and I think that has to be recognised.

cynicalHighlander

In two parts by the way 50 mins ea.

Liz g

———— Just Because ———— Scotland ——
On this day the 28th February in 1638 The Covenanters signed the National Covenant.
For the next few decades they were persecuted with as many as 18,000 being killed between 1661 to 1680.
They are remembered today as heroic fighters for their religious freedom 🙂

kapelmeister

Remember, Boris Johnson only has the power over Scotland which we choose to concede to him.

mike cassidy

First, They Came for Assange

link to archive.is

And how the USis treating someone who refuses to testify against him.

link to archive.is

Breeks


dakk says:
28 February, 2020 at 8:25 pm

…Much though I like and respect Alex Salmond, even under his governance pre indyref I used to rail as to why the entire Scottish population were not made aware of McCrone and the fact Scotland subsidises the thieving liars of britain…

I would agree that Alex Salmond made mistakes, especially where the media was concerned, but I also remember how little enthusiasm there was for challenging the BBC’s monopoly back in 2013/14. There was a general feeling that attacking the BBC was like kicking a hornets nest. Scotland’s alertness and cynicism about the media is much healthier now than it was in 2014, when people were still naive enough to believe writing complaints to the BBC Governors would change things.

I also think Alex Salmond was also weak on the Constitutional realities, but strategically weak, not illiterate. Alex Salmond was, if I remember correctly, highly critical of Blair’s Supreme Court and the Constitutional ramifications.

It was also Alex Salmond who agreed to the Section 30 precedent of 2014, although I think if I’m correct, much of the work setting up the Edinburgh Agreement was done by Sturgeon.

Blair Jenkins was weird appointment for me too. Never quite worked that one out.

But you’re right dakk, it’s easy to forget Alex Salmond made mistakes, but he also doubled support for Indy during his tenure, actually got Scotland as referendum, and came mightily close to winning it too. The first Holyrood and Westminster elections both returned emphatic surges for SNP representation… but mandates, majorities and momentum which were all squandered under Sturgeon, culminating with the low point of Theresa May’s snap election and Tory resurgence.

Don’t forget too, Alex Salmond had neither Brexit nor Scotland’s emphatic rejection of Brexit to lend power to his elbow. In 2014 the Unionist media had stolen a march on Europe and promoted the fallacy that Independence meant Scotland being out of Europe, not in it. If Alex Salmond had thereality of Brexit in 2014, or if Salmond had still been in charge after 2014, it might have made all the difference …

twathater

@ sassenach and others , obviously the covid virus can be utilised as an excuse to hang fire temporarily on a indy2 ref , as if NS needs further excuses , but what is the excuse from the EU ref in 2016 and all points forward as breeks so eloquently dissects , that period and ALL the mandates gained since then and with marches of over 100,000 people taking to the streets in support of indy means hee haw to NS and the SNP hierarchy

Sassenach you and others have come on here and berated and denigrated Stu for many of his blogs pointing out the truth , so much so that he has been called a unionist plant deliberately causing division in the movement through his outspoken views against the GRA

But I and many others have pointed out that it is not Stu who is creating the division but the rabid proponents of the legislation the SNP wokeists and SG ,there has been numerous requests for the SNP and NS to shelve or reject this policy all are ignored
So pray tell me and possibly others , when you encourage HOLD HOLD what are we holding for , what is the grand plan , IF Nicola and the SNP refused to challenge the constitutional integrity of Scots and if we don’t have a ref what are we holding for

Rm

Watching the parliament channel on the 25th Feb, the oil and gas future, the SNP MPs hardly got a say they were laughing and joking with the english mps who are dictating what the future will be regarding the moving into renewables, Scottish well Scottish MPs who want to dissolve the union should be putting up more of a fight, nothing ever gets done except they keep getting their salary, their down in Westminster to fight for Scotland, they’ve done nothing in four years, somethings wrong, is something happening behind the scenes? Our Scottish SNP MPs have to start taking the fight to them, they’re are laughing and joking while getting stabbed in the back at the same time, I wish they had more pith like some Irish MPs.

Golfnut

Having read Craig Murray’s excellent analysis of the extradition hearing a couple of times now, plus some what appear to be well informed comments regarding Treaties and domestic law, I find myself even more at a loss as to why the legal sword hasn’t as yet been loosed from its scabbard.
Treaties trump domestic law, why then are we allowing Westminster to dictate, using no more than conventions, what constitutes legality concerning our right.

Robert Louis

Breeks at 512pm yesterday,

Excellent post. I fully agree, that something stinks. What has the Scotgov done this week to advance independence? ~NOTHING.

Brexit continues apace, and SNP MP’s draw their fat salaries, whilst constantly whining about how awful Westminster is. But still they do nothing. Still the SNP ‘leader’ ignbores it all, seemingly happy to let it all be done to Scotland, so she can then whine about how unfair it all is.

Brexit continues apace, and Scotland is being ignored, yet our Scottyish government do nothing to stop it. NOTHING.

Breeks, I admire your posts, since they set out EXACTLY the reality of how Scots are being quite literally betrayed by the current Scottish Government. Let us not forget, they were elected on a mandate of calling an indyref, explicitly if Scotland is taken out of the EU against its wishes.

Still, NS blabs on about section 30. The whole world realises Boris won’t give one, yet Nicola carries on regardless, either willfully or in complete delusion.

Breeks is right, something is rotten at the heart of the current Scottish Government, wholly unweilling to even argue with Westminster. A bunch of cowards, in all but name. The SNP leadership have shown that when the chips are down, they, the SNP, will NOT stand up for Scotland. They do not have Scotland’s back. All too cosy, all too complacent.

And as for Iain Blackford? He promsied repeatedly in the HoC that Scotland would not be removed from the EU against its wishes. Many in the indy movement believed him. More fool us. A man in his shoes now, would advisedly stop whining. He had his chance, and literally blew it. Yet another SNP blowhard ‘toom tabard’.

The latter part of Breeks post is worth re-quoting;

QUOTE “I think there is something very, very, rotten here, and we really do need a stewards enquiry into our lame and spineless Scottish Government. This is not apathy. This is not merely incompetence. This is not inaction bred of cowardice. This more and more looks like the wilful and deliberate undermining of Scottish Independence. Somebody needs to ask some poignant questions at Spring Confer… oh.

I confess, I wasn’t sure at first, but now I am 100% behind Scotland developing a second Independence Party. Screw the list seats, we need a whole party in reserve, because there may be something fundamentally wrong with the A-team. I fear there is a credible possibility that it might have a black heart.

Maybe we should ask Gandalf to pop in on his travels and rap Nicola on the nose with his wizard’s staff, just to see if anything strange happens…

Meantime, I’m backing Team Cherry, and I can tell you, it’s a great positive feeling when feel the doubts just start to wash away…”

susan

I would support an Independence Party that was against the GRA, and I feel Scotland needs one. The SNP have us over a barrel, legislating woke rubbish with the knowledge that if we want independence we have to accept this nonsense. Just not on.

Ottomanboi

SNP IS NOW WELL AND TRULY ENCULTURATED.
BritUnionist fleas are growing fat and not even a scratch.
Our Sometime Never Party is plainly in need of a “physic”.

ahundredthidiot

If five different surveys were returned today confirming that between 65% and 75% of people living and working in Scotland, over the age of 18, now favoured Independence for Scotland.

What would the SNP do about that?

Answers on a postcard please, addressed to;

15b More of the Same Road,
Who gives a fucksville,
SNP Headquarters,
Spineless land,
PO BOX 666.

Stoker

For anyone unaware, another one getting out: link to twitter.com

Bill McLean

I think i’ve asked this before but does anyone think, and can rationalize why,maybe the SG is waiting for the result of the Alex Salmond case? I was waiting for a miracle right throughout 2014 expecting a clincher to appear – I don’t want to go through that again!

Clydebuilt

Bill McLean

Well surely it’s better to get the Salmond case out of the way before starting up Indy Ref2 .
Having a daily dose of negativity from the case being drip fed into a campaign would be very damaging.
Can’t think of anything worse!

Bill McLean

Clydebuilt – Thanks. I agree with you but many are impatient to be getting on with it. I’m looking for, if it’s possible, some in-depth assesment not jut my opinion!

Clydebuilt

Bill McLean

There will be a constant drip of negativity during Alex Salmond’s trial. This would be very damaging during an Indy Ref. Campaign.

Hard to think of anything worse.

Mist001

I don’t think it matters if Alex Salmond is found guilty of anything or not. His reputation will be trashed, which is the whole point of this farce.

On the otherhand, I believe Mrs. Murrell is one of the complainants, so if Alex is aquitted on all charges, then we can expect a major shake up at the top of the SNP.

Clydebuilt

Is everyone who is impatient to get on with it, working for independence. Is Westminster just sitting back and letting us get on with organising our independence campaign without interference?

meg merrilees

So if we had held a referendum 6 months ago and lost – ask yourselves where would we be now????

I’m as frustrated as the next person that we haven’t had our vote for freedom yet but, and it is a huge but, we have to keep the goal in sight and focus on what we want to achieve.

Everyone that is posting on this website with genuine grievances about the SNP/NS and other issues- have you actually spoken with your MP, your MSP, your local group, written to NS – or are you content that grumbling on this webpage makes you feel better?

There is so much happening around us just now – look at the mess Boris and co are making – the Part-Time Prime Minister attending a tory Ball while swathes of England are flooded, corona virus and the impact it will have on the NHS in England, the lack of any preparation for EU/UK negotiations… even the fishermen in the NE are talking about coming out for Indy now because they realise they will be sold down the river by WM.

Nicola may not seem to be moving things on but she maintains she wants a referendum this year; there is the AS trial to come and that will be uncomfortable at best and downright horrible at worst.

Politics is a bit like the weather just now, one storm after another.

GRA is doing nothing to help or to calm things down but I truly believe that this is being stirred up deliberately to cause unrest, unease and insurrection. We can’t let that put us off our goal.

I don’t have the answers but muttering and moaning won’t get us anywhere – we need action and sometimes that has to start at the bottom – not wait for top.

When it is this close we have to hold steady.

Golfnut

@ Clydebuilt and Bill McLean.

We will have a shit load of negativity regarding AS, win or lose, remember they have also charged him with Breach of the Peace.
After the trial they won’t be able to use it as headline news as readily as they would if indyref ran at the same time. They have no positive message to use during indyref, so they will use smear instead.
Nicola, could if she was as smart as we think she is, announce a date for indyref at the start of the trial. Some counter move must be made and made soon.

Republicofscotland

Now we have the former editor of the shitrag the Scotsman newspaper Magnus Linklater defending David Steel on the Lib/Dems #Paedogate whitewash scandal.

Linklater praised his friend, and hit out at critics of the peer. One creep defending another on the whitewash of child sex abuse.

We must make sure the Lib/Dems branch office in Scotland is reduced even further at next years election.

link to thenational.scot

Republicofscotland

As the Scottish government holds up their end of the Scotlands City Region deal by pumping in £1.8 billion pounds, Westminster has reneged on its end of the deal, by coming up £407 million pounds short of what was promised.

Bruce Crawford SNP MSP said the Tories might talk a good deal but they’ve yet again under delivered.

Scotland as part of this unnatural union is getting robbed blind.

Joe

Is it true we are thinking about considering people under 25 to have brains too immature to warrant jail time?

Not sure if its just usual media pish.

If so does that not extend to deciding on having their baws hacked off and voting?

Republicofscotland

“On the otherhand, I believe Mrs. Murrell is one of the complainants”

Where did you get that from? I’m under the impression complainers (In the Salmond case in Scotland) have complete anonymity, which I don’t agree with.

Republicofscotland

“Is it true we are thinking about considering people under 25 to have brains too immature to warrant jail time?”

You’ll be okay then, Chinthe brains never mature.

Effijy

Watched a fascinating show earlier this morning:
“The Krays and the Pervert Peer.”

The Profumo prostitute scandal involving a Tory Minister
and a Senior Russian sharing in turn a hot bed.

All possible was done to keep it buried but it blew up
And the publicity was a major negative for the Tories with an election looming.

Next a Tory Peer Lord Boothby is suspected of using young men for his pleasures
And the Krays build a relationship with him and one of these nutters had sex with him
Before supply boys for him.

Now having him in a position to blackmail him, he manages to pull strings in the corrupt UK
establishment and gets them off a serious violent offence.
Later he is used to relocate one of the gang to a prison of the Krays choosing.

Another Labour MP is lured into the same web and is forced to use his powers to help the main
Gangsters of London.

A gay Express journalist witness all the going’s on, had pictures too and reports to the Editor
The biggest scoop of the decade.

Great excitement until the papers owner tells them to bury everything quickly?
Seems the government asked favours of the owner for favours returned.

Next a left wing journalist in a left wing paper prints a picture of gangsters and political Lords
Socialising with one of a renowned rent boy.

A follow up story is written with all the juicy details about to come out
When shock to all the paper tears up the evidence, drops the story, apologises and pays
Out a record fee for compensation?

The Krays drunk with power carry out more killings, end up on trail and are refused bail
As evidence overwhelming.

The Blackmail the politicians to pull strings to get them released again but this loses them
All credibility as everyone knows the Krays to be murdering gangsters with a hand in just about all
Criminal activities.

Krays in prison and full cover up in play by the political parties covering up
For their criminal perverted Lords, everything looks settled.

A few years later a journalist decides to write a book about all of this.
He uncovers previous and new evidence and has a potential best seller
On his hands. Publishers all start out very excited, talking big numbers,
and then they drop it without feedback.

The Guardian wanted to serialise it, then they drop it?

The proof is all there?

The journalist goes on holiday and both his home and his secretary’s homes are
Burgled and all files disappeared?

He still works on the story with freedom of information rights but to this very day
Those in power involved I the story have their names redacted.

Today the establishment still cover up the criminals who were in their parties.

Labour, Tory and Liberals all corrupt to the core for generation after generation

manandboy

NOW AMPLIFIED BY THE CORONA VIRUS CRISIS, THE BREXIT ‘AVALANCHE’ IS GETTING WIDER – & SPEEDING UP

link to chrisgreybrexitblog.blogspot.com

Brexit is going feral

“What is happening with Brexit is something different. As I, along with many others with much greater authority and larger audiences, have recorded on this blog, most of the things that Brexiters want are simply impossible to deliver – possibly all of them, when taken in combination – and are often based upon deliberate or accidental falsehoods. This generates a faith-based politics in which what matters is loyalty to the cause and purity of belief. Possessed of such belief, the impossible becomes possible and inconvenient facts disappear.”

“We’ve now reached the stage where the government has purged from office all those who do not display this loyalty and do not have (or are not willing to simulate) this purity of belief”

Please read the rest of this article if you have time.

Pete

Effigy
I suppose that makes them just like the SNP then?
Trying to claim the political high ground is just plain stupid.
They’re all just as bad as each other, just like the general population, I suppose.

Willie

Post 2014 the British establishment resolved that never again would an upstart independence movement run them close.

Accordingly, in that we see today an SNP under a Sturgeon and others whose leadership is absolutely not committed to NOT pursuing independence. Lots of hot air abut a sometime S30 referendum but no real commitment. Indeed, instead of galvanising the wider independence support – Yes, AUOB, Wings, Craig Murray et al the SNP turn against them. It is if the SNP are trying to destroy the independence drive – which when you consider the contest between Joanna Cherry and Angus Robertson seems to reinforce the point.

Indeed, on that last point particularly why would Nicola Sturgeon have two star performers battle it out for the Edinburgh Central especially when Joanna is effectively the sitting MP from the area, whilst Angus is from Moray.

Something does not gel in all of this. Although she says differently Nicola and her coteries now seem to be the blockers. Why is this, and how do we change direction from a non independence direction.

Willie

Puting things in perspective it is not difficult to see who will be the winner with the SNP tearing itself apart uncommitted to independence whilst the wider independence movement looks on trying to imagine how it can operate without the support of an independence focussed SNP.

This state of affairs I think has its gestation in the British Establishment who watches and infiltrates so that it can influence entire movements.

No one should underestimate the dark power of the British state.

manandboy

LET’S BE HONEST, THE FUTURE’S NOT VERY BRIGHT, IS IT.
SO HOW DARK COULD IT BE?

link to progressivepulse.org

A flavour –

“I have been increasing uneasy about the politics in both the US and UK. The methods used by both Trump and the current Tory party increasingly resemble those employed by fascists.

I don’t expect gas chambers, but believe that in both countries amoral techniques are being used to gaslight the public and consolidate power in the hands of a very wealthy global elite.

The 26 richest people on earth in 2018 have the same net worth as the poorest half of the world’s population, some 3.8 billion people.
There is no question that many of the “elite” would like to keep things that way. This “elite” of course also includes mega-corporations, many with wealth greater than even middle-sized nations. Much of this wealth is hidden in offshore accounts and tax evasion and avoidance by the 0.01% is rife. Globally, the only organisation with the power and will to tackle this is the EU, which is why it has enemies on the right.

The EU is also a bastion of citizens rights. Workers rights, in particular, limit the profits that the wealthiest individuals and corporations can make. The “level playing field” is detested as it prevents a race to the bottom.

Standards, in quality of goods, food and environment, very much a part of “the level playing field” are also a brake on libertarian capitalism. The EU is by far the greatest champion of these issues globally and is increasingly effective.”

manandboy

THINK OF THE FLOODS IN ENGLAND. ONE MINUTE YOU’RE DRY, THE NEXT YOUR LIVING ROOM IS THREE FEET DEEP IN MUDDY WATER.
WHEN BREXIT HAPPENS, IT WILL BE LIKE THAT. ONLY WORSE.

link to vox.com

“Why is the destruction of truth, as a shared ideal, so critical to the (Johnson/Cummings) project? (edit.)

It’s important because truth is the heart of liberal democracy. The two ideals of liberal democracy are liberty and equality. If your belief system is shot through with lies, you’re not free. Nobody thinks of the citizens of North Korea as free, because their actions are controlled by lies.

Truth is required to act freely. Freedom requires knowledge, and in order to act freely in the world, you need to know what the world is and know what you’re doing. You only know what you’re doing if you have access to the truth. So freedom requires truth, and so to smash freedom you must smash truth.

There’s a great line from the philosopher Hannah Arendt, I think in her book about totalitarianism, where she says that fascists are never content to merely lie; they must transform their lie into a new reality, and they must persuade people to believe in the unreality they’ve created. And if you get people to do that, you can convince them to do anything.”

The Isolator

I suspect Nicola Sturgeon has her sights set on the keys to Downing Street via a resurgent Labour party with Scotland providing the canon fodder MP’s.She and the rest of the Labour sympathisers can GTF out of the party ASAP.Thank you

Craig Murray

Mist, Republic of Scotland

Mrs Murrell is not one of the complainants. Six of her closest cronies are though.

Dorothy Devine

Good grief! there is a lot of ordure being spouted on this site – utter crap from the usual and not so usual suspects

We have always said that the SNP were only a catalyst to independence and there were those in other parties and none who wanted independence – the folk who are surprised by this appear to be Carlaw , Rennie and whatisface of Labour in Scotland.

We have a media intent on destroying the Yes movement and it appears they aren’t doing a good job as we now have the twisted , manipulative infiltrators to add to dissent – one or two of whom seem to be ‘last word charlies”

Mist001

“Republicofscotland says:
29 February, 2020 at 10:57 am
“On the otherhand, I believe Mrs. Murrell is one of the complainants”

Where did you get that from? I’m under the impression complainers (In the Salmond case in Scotland) have complete anonymity, which I don’t agree with.”

Yes, complainants have anonimity, I’m saying what I believe to be the case, that Mrs. Murrell is one of the complainants.

Joe

Thats Slovenia voted in an ally of Orban. The future isnt all bad. Cant wait to see how the Italians do in the next couple of years.

Now that Turkey isnt stopping migrants we can watch the EU continue break under the weight of people who vote on personal experience and not do-gooder positive feelz

Joe

Eastern Europe is leading the way in rejecting this progressive pish. Now there are cities declaring themselves LGBT ideology free zones. But then, they did experience communism and have know what Islam is about from a millenia of experience.

Joe

Just need Trump 2020 landslide and George Soros (Rothschild public figure) hanging by his balls and things will definitely be rosy.

Oh…sorry…is anyone offended? Do excuse me, ill leave you all to your bubble:)

Tatu3

Meg merrilees @ 10.16.
Well said. The moaners on here should read her comment above.

jfngw

Those that are dismissing the current transgender issues as irrelevant should watch this report (taken from Rev’s twitter).

link to video.foxnews.com

What we have is a Dr Mengele experimentation being carried our in the western world on you people. The transgenics of the 21st century (same as the eugenics madness in the 20th century, which is still active).

I’m half expecting soon to be told Jimmy Saville was not evil but just a misunderstood person in the wrong body.

jfngw

That should be young people not you people.

kapelmeister

It is give years since the SNP won the 56 seats at Westminster. Four years since Scotland committed to the EU with 62% remain. It is not impatience when independence hardliners on this forum find fault with the softliners of the SNP leadership. It is clear sightedness.

People who find ready excuses for inaction will never find enough will power to act. Another lost indyref now would be far preferable than meek submission to Johnson. Submission is highly addictive and a hard habit to break.

As for people on here bleating about divide and rule being used on us. I say good. The keener students of history know that when divide and rule is used just once too often it creates a leaner, determined grouping that goes on to overturn the tyranny.

David

I think its you lot who were mentioned in the National keyboard warriors with nothing to say only insults

boris

The Whitehall Civil Service gets involved in politics tactically delaying Brexit and the Tory’s didn’t like it. But when they did the same thing in the 2014 Scottish referendum the same lot were praised, promoted and awarded top civil service awards

link to caltonjock.com

jfngw

@David

Says someone who comes to post an insult, very amusing.

kapelmeister

Pete Wishart is so soft he should have been playing keyboards in Blancmange instead of Runrig.

Ayeright

Is this still a site where supporters of Independence can exchange views, ideas and knowledge in pursuit of that goal?

I’m only asking because it seems to be a site for moaning about the SNP and replacing Nicola Sturgeon since 75% of the posters do exactly that.

It’s now a sad parody of what it once was. Pity.

Dr Jim

The Goldilocks principle:

Everybody knows the political system in Westminster is a fudge between pretending to be a democracy and a monarchy by having elections, then the winning party elects themselves a leader who in effect is the replacement King/Queen of the UK if they gain a majority of votes

The job of that replacement King/Queen should be to implement the will of Parliament, but that’s not how it works in fact, the new King/Queen implements the will of their party who in effect have become the new courtiers to the crown of the Prime Minster King, and they jockey for position whithin that herd for promotions and favours just as was the case in the past with the Monarchy, and we all know that the Monarchies are in effect dictatorships

In Scotland we have a devolved form of the same system albeit our history and constitution is slightly different
The problem in Scotland at the moment is that the current First Minister is not using her position in the same way everybody criticises her English counterpart for abusing

We don’t like what King Boris is doing because we can all see clearly that it is dictatorship, but in Scotland many on the Independence side of the argument demand that Scotland’s First Minister behave in the same way by only favouring her own political party and doing what we want and she’s refusing to deneutralise herself from a position of one side or the other because the numbers are close

The question is are we really demanding that Scotlands FM behave in the same way as Englands King Boris and if she does will she cause Scotland to degenerate into the same chaos as King Boris has done in England post Brexit vote

I personally don’t believe that Scotlands FM is not up for a political fight or feart of anything, except for one thing, and it’s the similar repercussions or worse in Scotland she could cause by not having sufficient numbers on her side to put to the country which will gain popular acceptance following a YES vote

I believe the YES vote is their to be had but the aftermath is the problem for the current FM
King Boris Johnson has no principles, FM Nicola Sturgeon appears to have too many

The porridge is not just right

Republicofscotland

“Is this still a site where supporters of Independence can exchange views, ideas and knowledge in pursuit of that goal?”

“I’m only asking because it seems to be a site for moaning about the SNP and replacing Nicola Sturgeon since 75% of the posters do exactly that.”

Ask yourself this, why has the Rev taken a break, and virtually stopped posting?

Could it be because like others he knows that there’s not going to be a indyref anytime soon, that Sturgeon has had years of Westminster in turmoil but still she couldn’t name a date for independence.

Also its very unlikely a indyref will be called anytime soon, not this year anyway, what with the Coronavirus, the Salmond fit up, no indy funds forthcoming, SNP donations down, and the SNP fully focusing on next years election.

When you step back and put all those things together, you see a picture, a picture that tells you that they’ll be no indyref, if at all, until at least 2022.

Its been four years since the EU vote, four years that Sturgeon has had time to plan meticulously for a indyref, consultative, advisory (the EU ref was advisory ) whatever you want to call it.

Tell me in that time what has Sturgeon achieved that’s brought us any closer to independence?

Republicofscotland

“I’m saying what I believe to be the case, that Mrs. Murrell is one of the complainants.”

Mist001.

Is that just your personal belief opinion, or do you have any info to back it up. If its the former fair enough, however if its the latter pray do tell.

Republicofscotland

Re my above comment Mist001, it would appear Craig Murray @1.20pm, has answered the question.

Ayeright

@Republicofscotland

Also its very unlikely a indyref will be called anytime soon, not this year anyway, what with the Coronavirus, the Salmond fit up, no indy funds forthcoming, SNP donations down, and the SNP fully focusing on next years election.

When you step back and put all those things together, you see a picture, a picture that tells you that they’ll be no indyref, if at all, until at least 2022.

What point are you trying to make?

That we shouldn’t be having a referendum this year OR despite all the reasons you cite not to have one that actually we should go ahead anyway and it’s Nicola Sturgeon to blame for not doing so?

You contradict yourself, it’s pathetic, no wonder I’m laughing hahaha

Breeks

Ayeright says:
29 February, 2020 at 2:40 pm
Is this still a site where supporters of Independence can exchange views, ideas and knowledge in pursuit of that goal?

I honestly don’t expect ardent believers in SNP strategy to come here and like what is being said. Frankly, I would feel much happier if you were angry and upset about what was being said here, then resolved to go and do something constructive about it.

Those of us dissatisfied with the SNP are not the ones creating the dissatisfaction.

Those of us outraged at the loss of our European Citizenship are not the ones responsible for losing it. We did our part. We handed Nicola Sturgeon an emphatic Democratic mandate backed by the Constitutional Sovereignty of the Scottish people opposing Scotland’s Brexit, and gave Nicola everything she required to create a Constitutional Stand-off over Brexit, like the Irish Backstop, which required either Westminster’s capitulation over Brexit or the dissolution of the Union when Westminster refused to climb down.

Like it or not, that created a precedent. Our Scottish Government contrived to lose over Brexit when it held all the necessary cards to avoid Scotland’s Brexit, affirm the Constitutional Sovereignty of the Scottish people, and render the 1707 Treaty of Union wholly and completely untenable as a direct consequence of Westminster’s unlawful colonial misadventure.

Our Scottish Government is now showing every indication that it fully intends to flout Scotland’s Sovereign Constitution again, by recognising the colonial Scotland Act and Section 30 requirements asked of a devolved assembly, as the superior authority over and above multiple mandates laid before the SNP by the sovereign electorate of Scotland.

That the SNP Scottish Government is content to pay lip service to Scotland’s Sovereign Constitution, seek no constitutional clarification in law, ignore multiple mandates for holding an Independence referendum, and pander to Westminster’s arbitrary conventions and constraints speaks volumes.

If the SNP doesn’t like criticism, then stop acting like Westminster’s poodle, recognise it’s the people of Scotland you answer to, NOT Westminster, and get on and do the job you were elected to do; protect the integrity of Scotland, save Scotland from colonial exploitation and subjugation , and end the goddammed Union!

The SNP Government is NOT a free agent at liberty to pick and choose it’s own bizarre agenda. It is the appointed government of a sovereign electorate which makes decisions which are binding. Start doing what you’re bloody well told to do. You’ve already fucked up Brexit with your inglorious and creative insubordination. While I have breath in my body, you will not fuck up Scotland’s Independence with the same arrogant hubris and Constitutional illiteracy.

I don’t give a fuck if you don’t like it. Where’s my fucking EU Citizenship you promised to protect?

Ayeright

@Breeks

Couldn’t read that long winded speel as are all your posts.

You’re a blowhard with your head so far up your own arse that I’m surprised you’re still able to breathe.

cynicalHighlander

@Ayeright says:
29 February, 2020 at 4:11 pm

Couldn’t read that long winded speel as are all your posts.

Maybe you should then and you might actually learn something

Ayeright

Pile ON! 🙂

twathater

@ Breeks , AGAIN AND AGAIN very well said , so ayeright , meg merrilees , Dorothy, all please explain why breeks is wrong and what NS has/is doing to correct this undemocratic fascist quandary we are being FORCED TO ENDURE , ayeright don’t just come on to TELL people not to air their views , TELL us what the SNP are doing to PROTECT AND USE our sovereignty , otherwise YOU just sound like a NS and SNP apologist

Breeks

Ayeright says:
29 February, 2020 at 4:11 pm
@Breeks

Couldn’t read that long winded speel as are all your posts.

Aye, that wee attention span explains a lot.

Ayeright

As I said earlier, this is a sad parody of what this site was. Look at the state of you. Pity.

Breeks

Ayeright says:
29 February, 2020 at 4:29 pm
As I said earlier, this is a sad parody of what this site was. Look at the state of you. Pity.

We’re not the enemy Ayeright.

Come back when you can answer some the questions being asked. Have a go explaining something. You wanted an exchange of views, so on you go….

Brexit was the easy ride for you guys. Blind faith and unquestioning allegiance isn’t going to cut it next time.

cynicalHighlander

@Ayeright

Well stop looking in your mirror then

Dorothy Devine

I did not mention Breeks at all , neither did I intend to – I may not always agree with him but I am more than happy to read his arguments – there are others with nothing to say other than denigrate , imply and name call.

John H.

Well said meg merrilees 10.16am.
Objectively, I know it is wisest to wait until after the AS trial for a referendum, but when I read of the antics of Boris Johnson and Priti Patel I feel so frustrated. I feel that I want to put as much distance between Brexitland and us as soon as possible.

It’s hard, but we don’t want to screw it up now or we will never get away. Having said that, if we don’t get a referendum this year then it will be much more difficult next year. Of course, Joanna Cherry said that there are other ways to achieve independence than a referendum.

Republicofscotland

“What point are you trying to make?”

“That we shouldn’t be having a referendum this year OR despite all the reasons you cite not to have one that actually we should go ahead anyway and it’s Nicola Sturgeon to blame for not doing so?”

The point I’m making is that Coronavirus aside, the other factors are of Sturgeons own making. If you still believe they’ll be a indyref this year, then you’re a bigger optimist than myself, and many others in here.

From 2016, when leave won the the EU vote and Sturgeon knew then that there was a very strong possibility thst we’d be dragged out of the EU, she shouldve planned for a indyref, and had a date by now, she didn’t, we haven’t.

Will we ever see such turmoil and confusion and lack of unity at Westminster again this century than we saw in that last few years over Brexit, and what a fantastic opportunity that was that Sturgeon let slip away on breaking this unfit for purpose union.

I really hope I’m wrong and you’re right and Sturgeon holds a indyref later in the year, then you can laugh till the cows come home, but I for one won’t be holding my breath on that happening pre-2022.

Dan

Cause and effect…
Breeks could produce shorter posts if said posts didn’t have to highlight and catalogue the ever increasing array of missed opportunities and bizarrely inappropriate for the times policy chasing that’s occurring under the watch of our politicians that many in the YES movement have worked our arses off to get elected over the years.

It would be braw if some new btl poster could rock up this afternoon and proffer some insight and an explanation to the various points raised in the following “long winded” post by Breeks.

link to wingsoverscotland.com

Effijy

No Pete,

Nothing like SNP.
SNPare not part of the London Elite who control Westminster and the Police.
They don’t redact freedom of information, they don’t have spooks steal from
Peoples homes and if they know someone in office has committed an offence
They are out of the party and presented for judgement.

Republicofscotland

“As I said earlier, this is a sad parody of what this site was. Look at the state of you. Pity.”

If anyones in a state it would appear to be you, a state of denial.

Bill McLean

What has happened to the Saturday cartoon and where is Cameron Brodie? I have been reading this blog since it began and found it informative and insightful and even, sometimes amusing when the obvious trolls put their nebs in – now I read it with despair as it becomes clearer and clearer that the Britnats are doing their usual and we, the mugs, are assisting in destroying this blog and with it a major weapon in the independence movement. Don’t know how much longer I can go on reading this constant complaining, insulting and criticism of those who try to educate!

Liz g

——– Just Because —– Scotland 🙂

The origins of the traditional leap year proposal has been attributed to many historical figures.
One of the most popular urban myths is that Queen Margaret of Scotland issued a law that fined any man who turned down a proposal on this date.
Historians point out that as she was 5 years old and lived in Norway it’s unlikely to be true.

Sarah